A Meeting of Aces
by Knight7572
Summary: As the aftermath of the lighthouse war begins to set in, the ace of the lighthouse war sits wondering where his future lies when a meeting between aces past and present occurs but over the sea a training flight mysteriously disappears, can the Strider squadron stop whatever is happening to the training before it claims another victim
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft mentioned

Trigger was sitting outside a cafe which has a view of the space elevator.

There was a little bit of sea fog was obscuring the base and a slight breeze from that direction, Trigger shivered as the cold breeze touched his face.

He looked around the restaurant to see if Avril had arrived but noticed a couple walked he saw a woman who looked 2 inches shorter than him but her black eyes looked like they had seen combat, her brown hair had grown out. She was wearing an astronaut's uniform and next to her was a white man wearing a white shirt covered by a green jacket. He wore matching dark green trousers.

"Excuse me, can me and my wife sit at your table?" the man asked.

Trigger calmly and politely replied "Sure."

He started to get up, but the man raised his hand "Please don't get up the table has enough seats for the three of us".

Trigger sat back down as did the man and woman who then said "The space elevator is beautiful isn't it" Trigger recognises the voice from the radio transmission.

"Pilgrim one" the man looked at Trigger like a shark closing in on its prey but his demeanour changed

"I guess introduction are in order "I'm Blaze and this is my wife Kei Nagase or as you know her pilgrim one" Blaze calmly said as Trigger realising who was sitting at his table and saluted.

"Its an honour to meet a legend like you sir" which Blaze said to the strider squadron leader

"No need to salute just call me Blaze" when a waitress came over to the table.

"Can I get you anything sir, madam" which Blaze replied "Yes 2 teas on second thought make that 3" who took down the order.

"Sure I'll make those right away" and as she was heading to prepare their order.

"So Blaze have you told Kei what happened to mr Harling?" which Blaze realised he hadn't told Kei about Harling's death.

"Blaze what is Trigger talking about?" she asks wanting a clear answer from Blaze.

"Harling's dead" he said with a somber tone in his voice that Nagase having known Blaze for years now knew he was being serious.

Kei's mind thought back to what harling had done from building the bridge of peace, the arkbird, ended the circum-pacfic war and helped build the space elevator that launched her spaceship to space, she felt waves of sadness that a man, she thought that the world felt less brighter with Harling's death "Trigger you were falsely accused and convicted of killing President Harling but later acquitted?".

"Yeah that's actually what happened" He said nervously shifting in his seat, looking around.

"How did you feel?" Kei asks the strider pilot who contemplated how he felt when he all those months ago.

"I felt very angry since I knew i was the fall guy who would get the blame for the iun's incompetence because I was trying to shoot down some drones that were surrounding mother goose one but a drone shot Harling down and as I was the one who fired a missile at the same time and the closest, i took the blame." He said, the frustration was clear as the noise of the squadron of four f-4e phantom 2 combat trainers lead by an f-15c eagle that flew over the cafe.

Blaze picked up his tea cup watching the fighters fly off into the distance "Before I left the Osean air force i learned that the oaf was to retire the f-5 tiger 2 and the f-4e and f-4g phantom 2 from frontline service and relegate the f-4e and g to be UAV targets and weapons trainer jets while the f-5 were to be sold to other air forces".

Kei continued where Blaze had left off "yeah that's what you told me while i was undergoing astronaut training" Trigger who was remembering his early pilot training in the f-4e.

"But for some reason they didn't do that cause of the rebuilding effort after the war that osea fought in over half a decade ago".

Blaze who was calm "Yeah my old flight instructor captain Jack Bartlett told me that the Osean air force had to use f-4 and f-5s to train pilots to replace the pilots they lost during the last war" but Trigger wondered how Blaze knew this.

"Umm Blaze how did you hear about what the osean air force was going to do with the phantom and tiger 2" he asks but Blaze had expected that question.

Blaze who was sipping his tea "Before I left the Osean air force I was a flight instructor flying the x-02 wyvern training nuggets on the f-5e".

Meanwhile out over Grunther Bay

The four Orchid squadron f-4e are flying at 2000 feet while the Orchid squadron flight lead in f-15c is 500 feet above and behind them "Okay nuggets the first lesson today is to practice a bombing run on those oil tankers on the water" but Orchid 2 spotted a carrier in the distance.

"Captain is there an osean carrier out today since I see an aircraft carrier 10 miles from our present position" but before the eagle pilot could respond to Orchid 2's question multiple streams of pulse laser fire rain down on the phantoms tearing them apart sending them down in flames.

The f-15 pilot could only watch in horror as the nugget's destroyed aircraft disintegrated upon hitting the water "what the" the pilot thought to himself frantically looking for the bandits that had killed the nuggets when the missile warning tone sounded the eagle pilot took evasive action but another stream of pulse lasers sprayed the aircraft send it down in flames which only seconds later hit the water sinking to the bottom of the bay.

Back at the cafe

Kei who was leaning on Blaze's shoulder asked the pilot sitting in front of her "Trigger did you run into any superweapons?" which Trigger calmly said thinking back to the arsenal bird.

"Well there was the arsenal birds and shooting one down was exciting since I had heard that at least every major war since the 90's have had these superweapons appearing".

Nagase couldn't help herself not to ask "What does this Arsenal bird look like?" Trigger trying to think of how to describe the arsenal bird when a brown haired hazel eyed woman who was walking with a limp come over carrying a model of the arsenal bird.

"Hi Scrap queen" Trigger said as Avril took up a seat next to Trigger who poured her a cup of tea.

"Hello to you too dumbass" but Avril not recognising the other 2 people at the table "Uhh Trigger who are they?".

Blaze and Nagase calmly looked at Avril when Trigger spoke up "That's Blaze and Nagase".

Blaze calmly said "It's a pleasure to meet you scrap queen".

Avril stopped him with a raised hand "Please call me Avril, Nagase I'm curious to know how you and Blaze met?".

Nagase calmly sipped her tea before speaking "Blaze and I were members of osean air force squadron where Blaze was flight lead and I was his wingman during the last war 9 years ago".

Avril trying to hide her shock that she was talking to legends who had fought in the same war as her father "My dad died in that war".

This caught all 3 pilots by surprise "I'm sorry for your loss Avril" Blaze said sombrely as he remember the ones he lost during that war.

"So Trigger by chance did you ever launch off a carrier during the war?" Nagase asked as she drank her tea which after 7 years away from Earth she had missed.

"Yeah I launched off the Admiral Andersen" he replied to her question, Blaze pouring another cup of tea for Nagase.

"We knew the man who that ship was named after but sadly he died weeks before Nagase completed her astronaut training, we attended his funeral but Nagase there is something else I need to say".

Nagase sighed before asking "What happened?" Blaze composed himself before speaking "Nagase Kirk passed away 4 years ago but from what Pops told me he went peacefully and we buried him next to Chopper" Nagase was sad to hear the news that a dog that they loved had passed on while she was away.

Avril placed a model of the arsenal bird down on the table which Blaze carefully picked up studying the design "I have to admit the design is very impressive but who built it?".

Trigger and Avril just looked at each other "Osea created both arsenal birds and the eurseans stole them".

Blaze and Nagase both facepalmed, the shock and disbelief was clear for them to see but Blaze's tone had sharply fallen, frustration was not even subtle "Seriously Osea let this happen again" Avril with a look of surprise and confusion on her face that this wasn't the first time that Osea let some of their weapons get stolen.

"Wait this happened before?" she asked, her mouth had dropped that her country had been that incompetent to allow such powerful weapons to get stolen more that once.

Nagase sighed in frustration that she had not felt in years "Yes this fucking happened during the war that we flew in".

"Trigger I'm curious what aircraft did you fly during the war?" Blaze asked his tone changed while Trigger finished his 2nd tea cup.

"Before the harling rescue mission I flew the f-16c fighting falcon but after the fight over the chopinburg had damaged the f-16 so badly that on landing it crashed then when I was sent to the spare squadron I flew the f-15 eagle and stuck with it till now but I've been told that I'd be transferred to a new aircraft of my choosing" Trigger said while he was thinking which aircraft he could choose "I mean the f-22 is a good aircraft but the Adf-11f raven or the f-44c warwolf is an appealing aircraft".

Trigger was staring at the space elevator "I wonder what its like to see the earth from up in space" Nagase who had seen that softly tapped Trigger on the shoulder.

"It was absolutely beautiful seeing the earth form space, seeing the earth form space made me realise how small we are" she replied to what she was asked but Blaze knew in his heart that Nagase's view of the world will have changed after her space mission but deep down wanted to experience that with her.

"So Scrap queen how did you end with the 444th squadron?" Trigger asked the 444th squad's mechanic since he never had the chance to ask Avril how she ended up at the penal unit.

"Well me, my grandpa and some friends spent 8 years restoring an old osean air force interceptor and I flew it on its post restoration maiden flight but due to lacking an Iff and radio, I got shot down by an Osean f-15 eagle although I did manage to make an emergency landing but according to the doctor at the airbase that I crashed landed at that the force of my crash has fractured my femur in my right leg".

"So Trigger what are your plans now?" Nagase asked with a hint of curiosity cause she knew he'd not be fighting any war anytime soon.

"Well the Lrssg will probably help with maintaining security around here but after that is over I'm honestly not sure what my plans" he said, the hope that he'd be able to move on form what he'd experienced and have a peaceful post war career.

"Well you've been given the option to upgrade to a new aircraft so I say you take it but a choice between the options wait where did Osea get their hands on an adf-11f?" Blaze asked after having thought about the aircraft choices the aircraft choices Trigger had said.

"well apparently a flyable adf-11f raven, which is a next gen fighter aircraft at cape rainy only last week and came to an arrangement with erusea to lease the aircraft from them to test it for improving weapon systems".

Nagase was thinking about the plane she flew when Blaze turned to face Kei "The aircraft that we flew in the Circum-pacfic war together is in the Osean air force museum" which Nagase was surprised since she had expected the aircraft would have been given to other pilots "I even have pictures of the aircraft" Blaze said cheerfully pulling out some photos he took only a week before Kei had returned to Earth which he handed to Nagase who passed them to Trigger and Avril but Trigger was started at Blaze's aircraft.

"Wait I faced an advanced model of this jet over shilage castle" Blaze spit out his tea looking at Trigger with a clear what expression on his face.

"Sorry but wait there is an advanced model of the x-02 wyvern?" he said having thought the super fighter had been retired when he left the air force since he flew the final flight of the Wyvren.

Trigger had thought back to his battle against sol 1 "Yeah the leader of sol squadron flew it in the battle over shilage castle but I shot it down and it was destroyed".

Avril's gaze turned to Trigger who Avril could tell hadn't heard the news "Cosette told me that Mihaly survived the fight over Shilage" Trigger was very surprised at the news that the former king of the skies was still alive.

"I don't understand how Sol 1 survived the crash of his aircraft I saw it dive into a hillside and I never saw him eject"

Avril interjected at what Trigger had said "Mihaly isn't even sure how he survived that crash".

Blaze poured another tea for Kei "Kei honey I think that we have some catching up to do who was looking out towards the bay.

"Yeah I've been meaning to ask how have Marcus and Hans been doing while I was away?"

"Well the salvage company that captain snow joined found the yoke battleship Upor that was sunk during the battle in the desert 9 years ago, the yuke government declared it a war grave cause people died when the ship was sunk, last I heard Grimm completed his training to become a commercial airline pilot" Blaze spoke filling Nagase in on what she had missed during her time in space.

Trigger having finished his tea looked out towards the sea "say Blaze what have you been doing for the last few years?".

Blaze looking at Nagase "Waiting for my blue dove to return so I can take her away to visit the place she has always wanted to visit" Kei blushed heavily at Blaze's words when Avril smiling at how much that Blaze and Nagase loved each other "Where did you want to go Nagase?".

She stuttered for moment when Blaze put his hand on hers "I want to see Gracemeria in the kingdom of Emmeria".

"Kei I'm thinking of joining the Ise after we come back from holiday but" Blaze was going to continue but Nagase silenced him with a finger on his lips" Oh Blaze" Nagase whispered what she wanted him to do to her into his ear then passionately kissed him but Trigger and Avril looking in shock that Blaze and Nagase were

"I guess more than 5 years apart leads to this" Trigger joked as Avril just smiled when the radio burst to life.

"IUN environment secretary will be holding a meeting with the president of Osea over the oil spills in the port of Artigilo after the Erusean oil company Erusean.s.a that owned the oil facilities that was destroyed filed a compliant against the Osean government to the IUN for the destruction of its oil facilities" Blaze and Nagase were still kissing each other but did break for air" the radio announcer continued but Kei chuckled for moment.

"Well its a good thing we're retired since I'd not want to deal with that" she said thinking back to the trouble that Harling had when they destroyed the jilachi oil facility that Yuketobian petroleum owned who didn't take the news well.

Blaze chuckled at her wife's comment "yeah whoever the president of Osea is will have to do what Harling had to do".

Nagase who was looking carefully at the arsenal bird model "It must be since pops told me weeks before I left for the deep space mission that the South Belka munitions company was still active, I wish that in the 7 years that I was in space we could have had peace" Nagase looked sad after she had read while in quarantine that there had been a civil war in Estovakia, a war between Emmeria and Estovakia, an uprising in Erusea and now the lighthouse war, Blaze could see in Nagase that being someone who wanted peace not war placed his hand on her shoulder.

"oh Nagase my blue dove peace is something we both strived and fought hard for and won" Nagase tried to hide her blush at what Blaze had said but Nagase's stomach grumbled loudly.

Avril decided at that moment to speak "I think your blue dove wants some food and after how long she's been away earth restaurant food will taste so good".

Nagase crossed her arms and scowled at the scrap queen wanting to scold her for using the nickname that only Blaze could call her but knew that the scrap queen had a point "Blaze want to order dinner?".

"Yeah I suggest you go to the restaurant that an Italian restaurant near the airport that I saw on my flight here" Blaze said to his blue dove but looked at Avril having noticed the leg injury as she was walking towards the table.

"So Avril what will you do now" but Avril was looking at the space elevator.

"I do not know I need to see if there is a way to restore my leg cause I want to fly again, I don't want to let a stupid f-15 rob me of that chance" she said, the determination was clear in her voice.

Blaze thought for a moment then remembered something the osea evening news had reported "The Emmerian ministry of health and science has developed a procedure to restore injured pilots's ability to use limbs injured in battle or an accident".

Avril hearing what Blaze had just said felt hope swelling inside her that she could fly again but Blaze smiling "our old mechanic Pops told me recently that the osean air force has an ex air force f-104g in storage up for sale but he also recently go to look at a the wreck of an f-104c that had crash landed at an airbase at the start of the recent war and he was very impressed at the handiwork".

Avril quickly looked at Blaze her attention drawn to what he just said "The famous pops was impressed by my restoration of a starfighter".

"Well Kei pops and Bartlett will be here tonight" Blaze said to Kei who smiled "I've been wondering how Jack and Peter have been doing since I was away" but Trigger could see a ship in the distance.

"Hey Blaze do you see a ship out there?" Trigger asked seeing what he thought was an aircraft carrier.

Blaze pulled out some binoculars "Yeah I see it and if I'm not mistaken that's a midway class ship which is odd since I thought they were retired nearly 3 decades ago" Blaze could see aircraft on the deck "unless I'm mistaken there are 4 f-4 phantoms on the deck" Blaze handed the binoculars to Trigger who used them seeing the f-4s.

"Yeah you're right there are phantoms on the deck but I can't tell what model of phantoms they are".

Kei curious at this sighting of a mystery aircraft carrier "I wonder if the belkans are up to something again since as we now know, they were involved in the recent war. maybe Pops will know something" Blaze poured a tea for himself and his wife.

"Yeah he is knowledgable on Belka so maybe there is something connected to this carrier".

"Trigger I have to ask did you see any aircraft that you didn't expect?" Nagase asked with a curious tone wondering

"Well there was 1 aircraft that I did not expect to see were f-117 nighthawks" Blaze and Kei looked at Trigger with a look of surprise and somewhat disbelief on their faces.

"Seriously you're joking" Blaze said in disbelief but Trigger shook his head.

"I'm serious the eursean air force sent f-117 nighthawks to bomb Stonehenge" Avril was listening quietly when Blaze said still trying to understand what Trigger had just said.

"Why would the Eursean air force would send obsolete stealth fighters to a major raid when every advantage the nighthawk had been overcome" Nagase was thinking about Blaze's question.

"Well the Yuktobanian air force deployed a pair of 1950s era Vulcan bomber that were outdated by 2010 but officially according to the history of the Yuktobanian air force book that I got in 2008 when I visited cinigrad the Yukes retired the Vulcan in 1984 but it seems 2 were clearly kept for possible return to service".

Avril was patiently listening "I think air forces don't think before doing something dumb like what happened to me"

Blaze and Nagase both knew how incompetent the osean military could be "Yeah they are pretty incompetent to have 2 arsenal birds" but Nagase interrupted "and the arkbird nicked".

Blaze looked over his shoulder as a Yuktobanian air force c-5b galaxy was coming over gunther bay with an emmeria air cargo Il-76td behind in it "More aid flights coming in" Kei, Avril and Trigger looked behind them to see the aircraft Blaze had spotted

"So you 3 flew the hawk trainer jet when you learned how to fly" Avril asked the 3 air force pilots who all nodded but Kei quickly thought to ask "What aircraft did you learn to fly in?"

"I learned to fly in an f-104d starfighter" Avril sheepishly said but the guy who taught me was grounded when the f-104d lost engine power on my final flight but he told me to bail out so I did but the starfighter hit the ground moments after I ejected but he had survived the crash".

Blaze, Trigger and Kei were silent as they took in what Avril had just told them that she had narrowly avoided death during her flight training "Avril if you want I can see if the Isev's astronaut training squadron will allow you to train on their tf-104g starfighter if you get take the procedure to repair your leg" but Avril quietly raised her hand "Thank you Kei i'd appreciate your help"

Trigger chimed in "I'll see if I can get your first flight in the new starfighter from new arrows and I'll see if I can get the strider squadron to help with the money for the jet" Blaze smiled at seeing his wife and his new friend Trigger helping an injured pilot to get back into the sky.

"Avril has this f-104g caught your eye" Blaze asked knowing from just looking at Avril that flying is her passion.

"Yes I am definitely interested in that starfighter" the scrap queen's mind was thinking over how good it would be to fly again after hearing strider 3's stories "Jaeger's stories are entertaining" Avril spoke only realising seconds later that she had said that aloud "oops did I say that outloud" Blaze, Nagase, and Trigger were all looking at her with surprise on their faces.

"Well Strider 3 does know some good stories I mean he told us a story of a pilot who fought a 6 man squadron with a throttle that couldn't add power from his engines".

Blaze knowing he had some stories of his own "I would like to meet strider 3, so I could trade stories with him".

Avril staring at the space elevator "Osea built the elevator on top of an asteroid crater" Trigger was thinking over the craters he had seen during the war.

"There is a crater like the one that the space elevator is built on top of near fort greys air base but i've seen the laker crater in farbanti, a crater in the chopinburg forest and one in roca roja" Nagase who had seen asteroids on her deep space mission.

"I saw asteroids that were way bigger than the one that struck earth 20 years ago".

Trigger remembering what he saw in the Stonehenge mission "If there is one thing that i'll always remember from this war is seeing the last stonehenge railgun firing for the final time" Blaze and Nagase looked at each other since they both thought stonehenge was inactive

"Umm Trigger wasn't stonehenge inoperative after the war in 2005?" Nagase asked curiously Trigger who had drunk more of his tea.

"It was but the osean army got the 4th railgun working again but after firing the railgun, it no longer worked"Trigger who could see the sun setting "i was only 8 when I saw the asteroids fall."

Kei was thinking to where she was on the day when the asteroid fell "I was only 12 when I saw the night sky rain down with shooting stars while my family were on holiday in Gracemeria".

Edge silently stared into Blaze who sighed "I was 13 stargazing at my house on the outskirts of oured on the night the asteroid hit the flash of light of the asteroids that hits erusea were visible from Oured."

all 3 turned to Avril who composed herself "When I was 2 my dad showed me the meteor shower with his telescope form our balcony."

"Wait what year were you born Trigger" Avril cheekily asked the three strikes.

"Well I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours" Trigger could hear the snarky tone in Avril's voice "I was born in 1997."

Trigger felt like he'd ruffled a hornet and now was getting stung "I was born in 1991".

Nagase dropped her tea cup on the table that spilled over the table surface "That's 10 years after me since I was born in 1987."

Nagase quickly looked at Blaze "1986" Blaze leaned back in his chair "if my math is right I'm 33, my wife is 32, Avril is 22 while Trigger is 28".

Blaze's mind was thinking about what Pops had told him about the workmanship of the f-104c "Avril you started your f-104 restoration in 2011" Avril nodded "8 years of hard work destroyed in a few seconds".

Blaze was wondering about what the heck happened "Avril do you remember what happened after you were hit by the f-15?" who put her hands in her face as the memories of that day filled her mind.

"I only remember the minutes up to the crash landing and what happened after I came round, I don't remember the crash" Avril's mind wandered back to that day several months ago.

_Several months ago_  
_Avril frantically looked at her gauges as the fire bell was ringing but Avril unsuccessfully tried to block the noise searching somewhere to put the damaged jet down when another alarm joined the fire bell that Avril's eyes quickly looked at which told that the hydraulics were failing._

_Avril's mind raced through her options as the starfighter dropped through 3000 feet she could try to ditch the plane in the desert and face certain death or crash land at the air base she had seen ahead of her but she raised her visor to see smoke coming from the base however given how long she had before the fire consumed the aircraft or she hit the ground, she quickly looked at her speed and altitude which she couldn't tell how fast she was going but she could tell that the aircraft was descending at 2500 feet per minute but she tried to pull back on her stick but the nose only rose 15 degrees however the f-104 clipped a small 500 foot sand dune that pushed the nose down sending the starfighter into the runway, Avril felt the deceleration hit her like a bullet as the burning starfighter careened while a trail of smoke & fire and sand followed until the interceptor finally came to a rest where the fire started to consume the rear of the plane._

_Avril having blacked out at impact momentarily came round hearing sirens but felt pain surging up her right leg but she blacked out again as the foam was sprayed over the burning aircraft._

_In the base hospital_

_Avril awoke in the bed still wearing her flight suit, she tried to move when a doctor entered the room "Ahh you're awake" the doctor put Avril's chart in the bed holder and put a chair "Miss you gave us a scare with that crash landing"._

_Avril looked around frantically but felt "Where am I and where is my drag racer? Avril growled in anger but was wondering about her drag racer._

_The doctor sat back in the chair "You're at an osean air base being treated for your injuries but officially you're to be arrested for violating wartime aviation regulations and most the airframe was consumed by the post crash fire and the wreck is being sent to the 703rd maintenance squadron for examination and inspection", the doctor got up from the chair "I suggest you get some rest, the transport will be here in a few hours to pick you and the remains of your drag racer up" Avril laid back on the hospital bed closing her eyes to the last sleep she'd have on a comfy bed for a long while._

Back in the present

Nagase finished up her 6th cup "So Blaze shall we get that meal?".

Blaze looked at Trigger "Trigger how about we go to the same place for dinner with you and your squadron and welcome to the club".

Trigger confused at what Blaze had just said "what club" he had absolutely no idea what club he had got into.

Nagase who had wrapped her arms around Blaze resting her head on his shoulder "The club for aces who end a war and save the world me and Blaze and the other members of our squadron are members as are the aces who ended the war before and after the one form 2010".

Avril looked up to the sky with a new joyous excitement but remembering what Blaze had said "I'll have to take a look at that f-104 and the procedure that the Emmerians have developed since I'd love to get back into the dark blue sky and fly again".

Trigger finished his tea and along with the scrap queen got up and left the cafe with Blaze and Nagase.

A/n

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my new fic since i've been on break from the ongoing projects i've been working on and I got the idea for this story after I finished Ace combat 7's campaign and saw the ending for the first time and I honestly loved the game it was fun and very enjoyable and I would say it is as good as Ace combat 4, 5 and Zero which 5 i've been enjoying replaying on ps4 as I got the deluxe edition of 7 for a good discount cause I had traded in several games, got 3 giftcards and had my reward card credit to get the deluxe edition at £33.98 but Ace combat 3: Electrosphere will be interesting to play and so far it is fun although without a ps1 memory card I can't save my data but i'll look into sorting that out now this story was supposed to be a one shot but I had to make it into a 3 parter since it got too big for a one shot but I hope you'll join me for chapter 2 where old and new friends meet and I show what I think happened with some characters from ace combat 5 and speaking of Ace combat I have played 10 of the 17 games in the franchise recently I went and replayed Ace combat zero with a broken R1 button which meant I had no way to accelerate the aircraft which I made into a story that Jaeger knew now the adf-11f raven is awesome, the weapon uavs are a lot of fun to use and thanks to the adf-11f raven I s-ranked mission 19 and before I go I have 3 fics to recommend the fires of liberation by xswisschrisx, a night in san salvacion by WillySmith1510 and ace combat 7: three strikes by MontyMartin which are all very good fics

so I'll see you all next time


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft mentioned

December 1st 2019  
Alex & Lara's leisure restaurant  
Selatapura, Gunther  
18:30pm

Trigger, Avril, Blaze and Nagase walked into the restaurant where Count, Jaeger and Huxian were waiting for him but Trigger stopped in his tracks when he saw 2 old squad mates that he hadn't seen in months "Clown, Knocker you're alive I've wondered what happened to you after I was sent to that hellhole of Zapland."

Clown who just got up hugging his former wingman "We survived the war Trigger" the strider and mage squadron flight leads sat down at the table.

Trigger having sat down between Avril and Huxian "So what happened to you guys after I left".

Knocker who had put down his drink "After you left Fort greys we were involved in intercepts with Erusean reconnaissance bomber flights but mostly it was quiet until we sank some Erusean navy ships that had survived an attack by the LRSSG but after the first Arsenal bird fell, we escorted a recovery team who found the remains of Brownie's super hornet in the chopinburg forest and recovered her body and that of her weapon system officer, we'll be holding her funeral next week and I thought you should know Brownie told me the day before she was killed on that disaster of a mission that she considered you a rival to being recognised by me".

Trigger, Count, Jaeger, Huxian all looked at each other taking in what Knocker had just said that Trigger's old squadron had to clear up surviving ships form their first long range strike raid but Trigger felt a wave of sadness that he was unable to save Golem 2 "I heard her over the radio she was full on panicking and scared, I could do nothing to save her form Sol 1 shooting her down but I got the bandit who killed her although he isn't dead sadly".

Trigger's mind thought back to all the people that he couldn't save and felt "I remember seeing Full band's F-18 explode a few hundred feet above my F-15, I saw the burning wreckage fall by my aircraft and I knew there was nothing I could do to save him, I still partially blame Bandog for killing him but give what full band knew he probably had sealed his fate long before we went on that mission

"Champ I never got the chance to ask him what he had done to end up at Spare and ironically I only found out after we returned to base with Cyclops and Strider that the MIG-29 he flew was my old MIG-29 that I flew"

"Actually Champ told me that he was at Zapland for the crime of assault with intent to cause injury to his flight leader at Bana air base and had shot an unarmed base personnel in the back" Count said but Clown having seen Trigger like this after Brownie died knew just what to say.

"Trigger you can't save everyone no matter how hard you try" Knocker said with a reassuring tone while Nagase poured herself and Avril a drink.

"Where are you guys based now?" Trigger asks when Clown having take a swig of his drink stepped into the conversation.

"Well the 508th tactical fighter squadron & 506th fighter attack squadron are currently stationed at fort greys with the new carrier.″

"btw how's Sky Keeper?" Trigger asked clown who thought about his answer when count decided to chime in.

"Who's Sky Keeper?" Count asked but Trigger was too focused on Avril to answer "Trigger you okay man?".

"Yeah I'm alright and Sky Keeper was the Mage Squadron AWACS and speaking of AWACS, Long Caster told me yesterday that the LRSSG might be transferred to Tyler island air base cause asbestos was discovered in the main building at new arrows that needs to be removed". Trigger replied to his wingman's question but Clown having never seen Blaze & Nagase, Avril and the other members of the strider squadron before "he's doing well and was happy that you were cleared of that horrible crime you did not commit but are you going to introduce me to your new friends".

"Clown, Knocker say hello to the Strider squadron of Count, Jaeger, Huxian and I should not forget Avril mead the best damn mechanic of the 444th squadron" he said but Huxian looking at Avril 'She can't be alive' she thought to herself but the scrap queen having noticed Huxian was looking at her.

"Huxian are you okay?" she asked but Huxian hesitated for a moment before composing herself as she realised that the woman looking at her was the pilot she thought had died by her error.

"Yeah I'm fine" she said softly but Clown's gaze turned to Blaze and Kei.

"I'm Kei Nagase and this is Blaze my former flight lead and my blue dove" Nagase could tell that Avril was distracted "Walk with me Avril" Nagase said getting up from her seat knowing that something was bothering her and thought maybe a private girl chat could help.

**In the game area**

Kei and Avril who picked up 3 darts with Kei taking aim at the dartboard carefully picking her shot tossing the 3 darts that all struck around the board "Avril are you in love with Trigger?" Kei asked as they stood in the game area.

"Yeah I am Nagase" the Scrap Queen replied letting her darts fly but the 3rd one missed the board, after she had pulled her darts out with Kei stepping up to take her throw.

"Why?" she asked the mechanic, her aim from all the years of flying had not faded with her 2nd dart hitting the bullseye.

Nagase decided to not take her Third shot, Avril hesitated to take her 2nd throw "He's a hotdog of a pilot like my dad was. He flew the rearguard of a flight like Trigger who came back alive when my Dad didn't, he'd run around the base on a morning run much to Mckinsey's annoyance stopping by my hanger to say good morning to me, I even thought about joining him on a morning run one time but knew I couldn't. He's a reckless dumbass that pushed his plane to its limits so much to a point that I gave his plane a tune up, he doesn't even know about the special component. I installed on his f-15 that I'll be installing on his new jet, its like you can trust him to get you out of a tight spot. I mean we all relied on Trigger because the Spare Squadron's motto was as Tabloid told me, stick with Trigger and you'll make it and thanks to him; I had hope that I'd survive, getting back into the sky, I watched him from a distance, as of late I felt myself wanting to be closer to him."

"Why don't you tell him how you feel about him cause it was after we lost Chopper it made me and Blaze realise that our life was short and we confessed our love for each other" Kei explained as they put the dart back in front of the board.

Trigger had walked over to the pool table carrying a glass "So Avril how are you liking being the strider squadron's mechanic?" Trigger had thought having Avril on his team would be a good idea so he'd discussed with his squadron and offered Avril the job who had accepted without hesitation.

"i am enjoying the job cause i get to work on your planes and see you, Count, Jaeger and Huxian but I feel something is missing". She calmly responded to his question already knowing what he'd ask next.

"And what you that be?" he asked thinking that there was only 1 thing that she could be thinking of.

"A supersonic jet obviously" she replied grinning like a schoolgirl.

"Well I had heard lightweight aluminium has been used by the osean air force on their older jets to save money on weight but as far as I am aware, no-one has used it to restore an entire aircraft before". He said Kei came back from taking a phone call.

"I hope your family is not as complicated as mine is" Nagase groaned after she had taken a call from her mom.

"Why do you say that?" Avril asked.

"My mother is also called Kei Nagase the pilot who's been training my squad mate Grimm to be a commercial pilot and my aunt is Reiko Nagase, the race queen in the Osea O1 World Championship, both were there the day the Pilgram one mission began and they have been waiting 7 years for me to return but I often get confused for my aunt or mother due to how similar we look but I think that will change soon".

"Nagase I can understand your problem cause I was given the middle name of my dad" Trigger said to the astronaut who smiled that she knew that at least she wasn't alone in that regard.

Trigger stared into Avril's hazel eyes that were so easy to get lost in, but he noticed the metal support wasn't around her right leg "Avril where is the metal brace you had?"

"The doctor told me that I don't need the brace to support my leg cause it's healed up enough that I won't need it anymore but I told him about my goal of returning to the skies, he explained the procedure that i would need to repair the fracture in my leg and I've got the procedure booked for later this week".

Trigger's eye had caught Jaeger walking over "Trigger we're having an extra large pizza you, Kei and Scrap Queen want the same?".

"Of course" the 3 said at the same time which unnerved Jaeger but he, Trigger, Kei, Avril and Huxian headed back to the table.

"So guys we'll be getting new jets soon" Huxian spoke as she sat down next to Kei and Trigger slipped her drink.

Count already knew what jet he wanted to fly "I'm going to choose the F-22A Raptor."

Avril smugly grinned at Count's comment having seen what was left of his F-15C Eagle "Well you did write off your f-15 last month".

Count sheepishly picked up his drink "well somehow I survived with minor injuries."

Trigger turned to his strider squad mates Count, Jaeger, Huxian "we were never formally introduced to each other when we first met at Zapland, so how about we do that Huxian you are up first".

Huxian put her drink down "you may know me as Huxian but I guess I should properly introduce myself, Cynthia Saito and Trigger already knew my real name, I told him during a hike we went on out of cape rainy" Trigger turned to look at Jaeger who along with Blaze had returned with the receipt for the pizza "Fredrick Jager."

Trigger's gaze moved onto Count "Leo Homstad" the 3 strider squadron members looked at Trigger "Scott Hansen" when the sound of the door opening caught all of their attention and a 5 foot 10 black haired man and a 5 foot 9 grey haired man walked into the restaurant but the Scrap queen was awestruck but Trigger looking at Avril was silently fan girling at meeting a legend that one of her granddad's war buddies had told her about.

"Fan girling are we Scrap Queen" he chuckled but Huxian quickly stopped as pops saw her she quickly left her seat who Pops had seen pulling her into a hug "long time no see" which surprised Bartlett and even Blaze.

Nagase beat both Bartlett and even Blaze to the question "Pops how do you know Huxian?" Pops, Huxian and Bartlett sat down getting comfortable.

"I met Cynthia in 2011 when her F-18F Super Hornet crash landed at your old base which is home to large colony of seabirds now" but Jack having seen Avril pulled out an envelope handing it to her, she opened it and read what was on it looking very annoyed.

"Those total dumbasses my drag racer was registered to me and they didn't tell me and now cause of the dumbass F-15 pilot it's destroyed" Avril ranted in frustration but Cynthia felt the guilt rising within her that she hadn't told Avril the truth of who shot her down.

Pops having seen the remains of the aircraft could understand her anger "Miss Mead I've examined your handy work with that F-104C and I must say I'm very impressed at your restoration work of that interceptor, I think the Oured Engineering Academy would be interested if they could use the starfighter you restored for training new mechanics in what to look for engine fire and in-flight fire damage".

Avril was taken back that the legendary pops had been impressed by her handy work "Thank you my grandfather told me stories about you Pops and if someone gives me their number I'll consider it."

But in the envelope were pictures of the remains of her starfighter but when everyone saw the burned rear section and engine "Woah that is a lot of fire damage" but Jack knew since they were unable to talk to Avril at the inquiry into the shoot down of the starfighter so he needed to ask her about the shoot down.

"Avril can I talk to you outside?" Jack asked but Avril knew it was probably about her crash so they got up from the table walking towards the outdoor area but Cynthia got up too following slowly behind knowing they knew she was behind them.

**Outside the restaurant**

Jack and Avril sat down at 3 seat table "Avril as there is an inquiry into the shoot down of your plane I'll need to ask you some questions if you don't mind me recording our conversation" Avril leaned back into her chair.

"Yeah I have no problem with that" Avril calmly spoke as Jack pressed the play button on the tape recorder.

"Avril what do you remember about the crash?" he asked the wounded pilot who recalled the events in her mind.

"I don't remember the moments after impact with the ground or the impact with the ground itself however before impact my drag racer struck a sand dune that sent it into the ground but when I came too I smelled burning from the post crash blaze and a lot of pain in my right leg then I passed out again as the fire crews arrived."

"What happened in the minutes before the crash?" Jack asks continuing his questioning which Avril knew she'll probably get some blame but it felt right to tell her side of the story.

"Well after the F-15 had crippled my aircraft I could smell burning and the gauges were telling me systems were failing, hydraulic fluid was pooling at my feet and plane was dropping fast I had considered ditching it in the desert but I saw the airfield and decided it was my only chance" Jack Bartlett in his mind knew that is what she should have done in the situation she was in but the f-15 opening fire was what had shocked him

"So when the F-15 appeared did they attempt to try and get you to land?" Avril shook her head at jack's question "what was the F-15 doing before it fired on you?" Avril's mind quickly recalled what she saw that day.

"The F-15 was chasing an Erusean drone when it altered course after me which in my panic as I didn't expect to see an F-15 Eagle, I tried to run for it but the F-15 quickly caught up firing cannon rounds into my plane that must have set the engine on fire and damaged the canopy" Avril explained as she felt the frustration from when she was shot down return but she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"During the examination of the wreckage Pops found their was no IFF, working ejector seat or radio installed could you please explain why they were not onboard?" He asked having been wondering that ever since Pops had told him that the aircraft didn't have either onboard.

Avril sighed as she knew that would be criticised for that "Well the plane was built from scrapped F-104C and F-104D aircraft parts unfortunately none of the them had a radio or an IFF system or working ejector seat, the other f-104 wrecks that we found had them but they were not compatible with the C model."

"Thank you Avril this will help the inquiry but you know that they will apportion blame for the errors you made" Jack said in a tone that Avril recognised from one of her late granddad's war buddies.

Jack and Avril were going to get up when Cynthia came out but they could see that she had been crying, Jack could tell Cynthia felt guilty about the shoot down and wanted to get it off her chest "I have a confession to make" she wondered what could be making Cynthia feel so upset like she wanted to cry however Jack already knew why.

"The F-15C that shot you down at the start of the war well I intercepted an F-104C that day, your F-104C, I am so sorry for doing this to you, can you ever forgive me for my stupid irresponsible fuck up that left you with a limp and the possibility that you may not flying the dark blue sky again" Cynthia spoke the tears rolling down her face and the sadness in her voice was so clear that it could be cut with the wing of a Starfighter.

Avril felt that she should be angry at Huxian for shooting her down and giving her the leg injury but in her heart didn't feel that was right because she could see that Cynthia was feeling guilty about what she had done "Cynthia we both made mistakes that day so yes I forgive you for what you did" Avril said hugging Cynthia tightly who cried into her shoulder letting her tears of relief wash over her but Trigger had stepped outside just standing next to Bartlett who calmly leaned against the pillar.

"Cynthia was the one who shot Avril down all those months ago and she beat herself up over it" Jack explained leaving Scott and the scrap queen in shock that Cynthia did all that to herself over 1 little error of judgement.

"Cynthia is this true?" she asks her friend since hearing what she did to herself but she just nodded still crying until her eyes were dry.

"When I get this procedure done I'll keep the brace as a reminder of how close I came to death and how my errors almost got me killed" she said trying to console Cynthia who was still feeling guilty about the whole thing "Still thought I could have outrun your F-15."

"You had no chance of outrunning Cynthia's f-15, the F-104C Starfighter was intended as a point defence interceptor to catch up to Tu-16 Badger and M-4 Bison bombers and take them down with its Vulcan cannon and sidewinders not to dogfight a fully armed Eagle" Trigger said but something was bothering him about the whole event "How were you able to crash land the plane since with no hydraulics none of the controls would be working?".

"Well I used the plane's ram air turbine to keep the flight controls working" she explained as she thought back to her crash feeling fear rolling through her.

"How about we go back inside its cold out here" Cynthia spoke wiping away her tears.

The 3 pilots headed back inside as Jack thought back to seeing the wreckage of the Starfighter for the first time.

_New arrows air force base hanger no.1_  
_Eastern Usea_  
_May 18th 2019_  
_16:00pm_

_Wolfgang buchner and Jack Bartlett walked into the hanger, they saw the remains of an old F-104C interceptor with its damaged and burned J79-7A turbojet engine "what a mess" Jack said as the two saw that the forward section of the Starfighter forward of the wings was in very good condition despite the bullet holes in the wings and both the air intakes however the airframe beyond the wings was a blackened soot covered skeleton with the only recognisable part being the t-tail, Pops who looked at the cockpit "Whoever built this is very good, who owned this aircraft" Jack leaned into the cockpit seeing how the instruments looked as they were frozen in their final position._

_"Well the aircraft was registered to a miss Avril mead, the daughter of an old flight school friend of mine who died in the war 9 years ago but due to administrative errors she never received the letter that the starfighter was registered in her name"._

_"So Peter what can you tell me about the damage?" Jack asked as Pops stood by him looking at the F-104C sitting on the hangar floor._

_"Well the engine gauges tell me the plane's J79-7A engine was losing power and was on fire thanks to M61 20mm bullets that penetrated the air intakes which were sucked into the compressors destroying the blades causing the engine catch on fire but the bullets also destroyed the oil and hydraulic lines"._

_Jack stopped him with a simple question "How is the forward section looking not as damaged as the rear?"._

_Peter walked up to the plane's nose "When the plane slammed into the dirt, the aft fuel tank ruptured when the aircraft crash landed igniting the fuel aboard which consumed the rear of the plane while the little fuel in the forward tank that also ruptured but with little fuel and a headwind prevented the fire spreading to the front of the plane saving Miss Mead's life."_

_"So how fast was the plane going when it hit the ground" Jack peered into the cockpit once again "I'd estimate 315 knots at 15 degrees nose down but I'll need to remove the components to get a more accurate reading but I can say with failing hydraulics meant a high speed belly landing, its lucky that Avril survived the crash"._

_Cynthia walked into the hangar "Wait that's the drone I shot down"._

_Jack turned to face Cynthia he could feel his anger rising over at what he had just heard form a nugget he had trained._

_"Captain Cynthia Saito did try to contact Avril on the radio?" Jack asked sternly feeling the anger in him continue to rise._

_"No sir but who is this Avril" the pilot said nervously as she could feel the tension in the air building as Bartlett was in more disbelief._

_"She's the owner and pilot of the plane you shot down, so I'll only ask this once did you follow interception procedure of flying along side the aircraft and use hand signals to tell the pilot to follow you back to base?" Jack asked with his frustration rising but the Cynthia's answer was what he expected._

_"No sir I did not" Cynthia said with a reserved tone but she could feel Bartlett's disapproving glare staring into her while Pops was examining the cockpit of the starfighter seeing the destroyed canopy but he did see the bullet holes in the cockpit but he noticed that there was something missing from the cockpit._

_"Do you not remember the one interception procedure that I tried to teach you" Jack said raging spilling in his voice as he felt his anger finally boiling over._

_"That if we couldn't contact the pilot we flew along side, use hand signals to get their attention and get them to land" Peter popped his head out of the cockpit._

_"Uhh Jack, Cynthia there is no radio onboard the plane" Jack Bartlett stopped at what he had just heard that Avril made a rookie error of not installing a radio on her plane._

_Pops is there an IFF transponder onboard?" he asks his friend and war buddy who shakes his clearly indicating that there wasn't one._

_Cynthia hoped Bartlett would bend the rules but what he said next shattered that hope "You'll be grounded pending an inquiry into this incident". Pops had removed the airspeed and artificial horizon looking for telltale impact marks to see what the gauges were showing when the cockpit hit the ground._

_"Jack according to the gauges impact marks the airspeed was about over 700 knots in a 25 nose down angle" pops said to his old friend who was a little surprised._

_"Well given the speed and weight of the aircraft with her and fuel I'd estimate she got slammed by more that 35g at impact but I noticed bullet holes in the cockpit and there is blood" he said as it dawned on the men that Avril's leg could have been hit by 20mm cannon rounds._

_The Cyclops pilot who eyes were drawn to the bullet holes in the cockpit as she felt guilt rising within her._

_A horrifying thought crossed into Cynthia's mind "I killed her my god I killed an innocent pilot" her steps were just barely keeping her upright, with guilt weighting her down, as she ran from the hangar to her quarters, diving into her room slamming the door behind her, she pounded her fists on the door not caring about the pain she was feeling from her sore fists "what have I done" she said to herself the guilt was racing through her so she sat on the bed._

_At Dinner time_

_Cynthia sat down at the table but Wiseman saw hair sticking out of Cynthia's ponytail, a clear sign to him, something was wrong, since she always had a neat ponytail. The dried tears on her cheeks tipped him of further Cynthia could feel Wiseman's gaze on her "Wiseman I'm fine there is nothing wrong!" but normally Wiseman would have believed her but he didn't this time "I'm not hungry" she got up from her chair leaving her food behind._

_that Night_

_Jaeger and Wiseman were walking by the Cyclops squadron's bedrooms when they both heard what sounded like crying and a voice that they recognised as Huxian "I killed her didn't I, how could I have been such a stupid fucking dumbass moron to shoot her down" Cynthia thought about the pilot she had killed in her stupidity, the life she stole and it made her sick to the core, when she thought about the people who were undoubtedly devastated by the loss, grieving their loved ones death. And it was her fault, her failure, her mistake led to the dead"._

_"Cynthia are you okay I heard crying" Wiseman asked wanting to know what was wrong but her response was not what he expected to hear._

_"Go away leave me the fuck alone" she shouted not wanting to drag Wiseman into her personal problem so he and Jaeger knew if she wanted to be alone then it was pointless to argue._

_Cynthia cried herself to sleep that night feeling guilty that she shot down an innocent pilot._

_New Arrows Sir Force Base hanger no.1_  
_May 24th 2019_  
_8am_

_Cynthia was standing in front of the wrecked starfighter just staring at the cockpit instruments frozen in time as they were at impact nine days earlier but Wiseman walked in carrying 2 sandwiches "Cynthia what's wrong please tell me" Wiseman asked softly wanting to know what is going on as Cynthia thought that if she told Wiseman he'd help her deal with this mess._

_"nine days ago I got into a dogfight with two erusean MQ-99 drones except one of them wasn't a drone, it was this f-104 starfighter and I shot it down but I think I killed the pilot an innocent civilian pilot and destroyed an impressive piece of history" she said tearfully just wanting to cry but Wiseman was taken aback that Cynthia was beating herself up over this._

_"Why do you think that?" Wiseman asked the tearful Cynthia who was wallowing in her guilt, she walked over to the back of the Starfighter, Wiseman however had seen the less damaged forward section of the plane._

_Cynthia felt her guilt getting worse "I think I killed her cause she never bailed out and I saw the crash, there was no way she could have survived that"_.

Back in the present

"So I survived my drag racer crash with luck and little fuel in the forward fuel tanks?" Pops who was drinking his 2nd cup of tea jumped in.

"Yeah if the forward tank had more fuel, the fire would more than likely have consumed the whole plane and you'd not have made it out alive"

Avril just sat there as her mind processed that she had cheated death but also felt her mind drifting back to when she was shot down but both Nagase and Pops recognised that something was bothering Avril so Kei decided maybe they should talk about with her as she & Jack and pops knew what it's like to be shot down.

"Zapland was a hellhole right Trigger & Count" Avril said not being subtle about how much she hated that place.

Bartlett spit out his drink in shock "They sent you to that place I thought it was supposed to be closed in 2005 after it was deemed hazardous to human health and was inadequate for use"

"Yeah if it was suppose to be closed then how come it was used as a prison?" Avril couldn't help but ask.

"Well apparently according to a report the usean government was bribed by the company that built the place in the 50s to not close it and let them refurbish the place into a penal base" Jack explained but he knew that place would be demolished now given all the damage the base likely took during the air raids.

"So Nagase where were you for the last 7 years" Count asked since he had heard of Nagase through the 4 wings of sand island article that he had read years ago.

"So osean astronomers spotted another asteroid on collision course with earth and to avoid another Ulysees disaster like the one 20 years ago, the 7 year deep space mission was sent either divert the asteroid form earth or destroy it which we were able to do so" Kei explained to the group.

"So you prevented another disaster like the one from 20 years ago how?" Count asked as he remembered seeing the news on that day

"We used belkan V2 warheads that were left over from the war nearly 9 years ago to destroy the asteroid" she explained to them but something didn't stick right with Blaze about the V2.

"That doesn't seem possible since they were lost along with the SOLG when it was destroyed at the end of the last war?" Blaze asked wondering how they had gotten a hold of V2 warheads since the Razgriz had destroyed the v-2 nearly 9 years ago.

Pops however had a good idea as to how the ISEV had gotten a hold of the V2 warheads "Grunder industries had a technique back in the day, probably still do today that meant they could make Three F-16s for the price of two it's very cost effective in terms of manufacturing, so likely they used the same principle on the v2 and had a large amount in storage that the Oseans or ISEV found but knowing they couldn't be allowed to keep the V2 they must have decided to use them on the deep space mission".

Trigger said something which caught pops attention "Pops I saw a midway class carrier with F-4s on the deck but I couldn't see anyone aboard the ship".

Peter thought for a minute as he searched his memory when he remembered something that he'd seen during his time at Belkan high command "the Belkan navy proposed in the late 70s to convert three Midway class carriers, the carriers Roma, Morbius and Eden into a drone aircraft carriers with drone F-4B, J, K, N and S fighters and bombers, A-4 M & M Skyhawks, A-6E Intruders with EA-6B Prowler jammer aircraft which like with the carriers were being replaced with the newer F-14s Tomcats & F-18s Hornets and EA-18 Growlers were coming into navy service in the 80s but it was cancelled in 1983 as it was considered not technically possible at the time however if you saw a Midway class ship then it means the Belkans have possibly revived the project and completed it during the time between the war form 2010 and now" Pops spoke as he pulled out the blueprints for the ADFX-10 that Trigger recognised instantly.

"That's the aircraft I shot down over Bulgurdarest" Jack and Pops were slow to respond to what Trigger had told them but Pops knew that is had to be of belkan design.

"How did you get this pops?" Kei asked but Pops smiled before sitting back sipping his drink.

"Let's just say someone owed me a favour." he calmly said noticing the sour look on Blaze and Kei's faces.

"So I guess Belka is up to no good again." Blaze calmly spoke scowling that the people who tried to kill them hadn't learned their lesson as Jack seeing that the mood was turning a little sour so decided to change the subject.

"What was the dangerous place you've been Trigger?" Jack said speaking with a cautious but curious tone in his voice.

"Oh Cape rainy hands down I saw several plane wrecks in that area some F-4s, F-5s, C-121s, F-104s, C-12s and a C-137C while I was hiking with Cynthia" Trigger began as he thought back to that day.

_A mountain near Cape rainy air force base_  
_Northwestern usea_  
_September 18th 2019_  
_17:25pm_

_Trigger and Huxian stepped over the ridge where they could see the ridge between them and cape rainy air base and all the mountains around the area "Can you feel that cold mountain air Huxian"._

_She raised her hand "call me Cynthia that is my name after all and yes its cold but refreshing,"_

_"Since we are sharing first names I'm Scott" Trigger calmly said as they took in the sights they could see as a OADF CT-39A Sabreliner light transport banking to turn out towards the sea on its approach to cape rainy._

_Trigger's eye saw plane wreckage in the ravine "what the hell happened down there?" they carefully stepped down onto the ravine but Huxian could see that a line of trees had been cut and the gash across the ground that had been covered by grass._

_they saw the rear fuselage of military Passenger/Freighter Combi plane and multiple pieces of burned debris with broken metal scattered about while at the other side of ravine was part of the nose and cockpit._

_The 2 pilots walked through the debris field when Trigger spotted an engine laying in the dirt "a TF-33-102 engine if I'm not mistaken" Cynthia looked around only to see the wrecked aircraft's tail laying on its side with the one of its elevators in a nose up position she could see from the tail that the plane had an orange rose emblem "75-961, TI"_

_"I wonder how the plane crashed" Trigger said wonder how the transport had ended up here but he could tell the crash wasn't recent._

_"I think when the plane crashed it was trying to climb over the ridge and had struck the treeline as the fuselage struck the ridge scraping over the top while it was breaking up sliding into the valley below until it came rest where after the post crash fire probably engulfed the plane" Huxian explained as Long Caster's voice broke over Trigger's portable radio._

_"Trigger, Huxian where are you guys since you missed the briefing about tomorrow's raid on Farbanti, we were about to scramble people to look for you guys" but Huxian took the radio from Trigger's hand._

_"Me and Trigger went for a hike on the mountain near the base but we found aircraft wreckage up here" Long Caster was silent for a few minutes before his calming voice came back over the radio._

_"You must have found the remaining wreckage of an Eursean Air Force C-137C Stratoliner that crashed in this area in 1992" Trigger who had walked up the ridge ahead which was directly ahead of Cape Rainy's runway 34 while on the ground were OADF C-21A & C-12J Huron with an OMDF C-20G and UC-12F Huron light transport plane parked up on the tarmac unloading freight._

_"My mom told me that my Dad flew in here once in a KC-135E Stratotanker and he was unsatisfied with the approach procedure that was required to land on runway 34."_

_"What was the approach procedure for runway 34?" Cynthia asks wanting to know more._

_"The approach required the plane fly over the mountains and runway before turning right out towards the sea then fly parallel to the runway before turning left to land on runway 34" Trigger could see the storm building on the horizon but his eye noticed a silver object laying in the dirt with the emblem of Erusea on it "Hux look at this" Scott said holding the silver locket in his palm ″to my darling Emmanuelle D'Elise may we soar the dark blue skies together forever″_

_"You going to return it to its owner?" Hux asks wondering what Trigger was going to do._

_"Yeah I plan to do, so how about we abseil down to the road" Trigger said with a grin on his face as he pulled out 2 sets of abseiling equipment and ropes._

_"I'm game for that" Cynthia said cheekily much to Trigger's smiling face._

_later that evening_

_Cynthia was sitting the lounge area when Trigger walked in carrying a VHS tape "so I went looking and found this in the archives downstairs" Trigger put the video inside the VHS player as Huxian leaned into him._

_An ENN news reporter appeared on the screen with a picture of a Stratolifter behind her "An Eursean Air Force military plane has vanished from the radar in northwest erusea near cape rainy air force base it was carrying troops and their families back home for Christmas, the area is covered by high mountains and winding canyon search and rescue teams are continuing efforts to find the missing plane but bad weather is hampering search efforts."_

_The tape showed a sofa with two ENN news presenters seated around a small table "The remains of an Eursean Air Force military plane that vanished in Northwest Erusea early this morning have been found on the side of a mountain just ahead of Cape Rainy Air Force Base."_

_the 2nd newsreader a male took over from his colleague "The cargo plane a C-137C Stratoliner had 150 passengers, a crew of 13 and 10 pallets of cargo was on a night time approach to the air base when it vanished from radar, rescuers are at the crash site but the rescue teams don't have much hope that they'll find any of the 163 people alive."_

_Trigger paused the tape "so I assume nobody survived."_

_Trigger just nodded "well given how high the mountain was and how bad the weather can be around here I would be surprised if anyone could have survived the crash after how the plane crashed"._

_"So what caused the crash?" Trigger pressed the play button the play, a female ENN newscaster was standing in front of a screen "Erusean investigators have determined that pilot error was to blame for the fatal C-137 cargo plane crash two years ago, the pilots descended earlier than they were supposed to due to being on duty for too long, the pilots also thought they had passed the mountain due to a navigation error exacerbated by the bad weather and their lack of experience with the approach procedure that wasn't approved for the Stratoliner."_

_"So I hear that the Air Force is trying to make mission briefing not so boring" Trigger said leaning back into the chair as the rain was pouring outside._

_"They could make them like the ones in those combat sim video games with music and someone reads it with an awesome voice actor" Cynthia spoke having decided to do the same but rested her arm on the sofa head._

_"Yeah I like that idea" Trigger happily said as the ENN news at 6 came on the TV._

At the bar area

Avril and Cynthia sat down at the bar, Avril checked the clock that read 8pm, she looked around at the bar Princess Rosa standing there who was dressed for an evening out by herself "May I join you?" she politely asked wanting to join Avril for a fun time "before you ask, I'm old enough to wine since I'm 18 which is the legal drinking in Eursea that my father laid down 3 years ago."

"Mr bartender my we have 3 no make that 4 glasses of erusean red wine" she said caught Avril gazing at Trigger who was walking towards them.

"Miss I will need to see some id before I can sell you this" the bartender said, Rosa pulled out her passport handing it to the barman who checked the photo that was of Rosa as she looked when she turned 18 "okay miss I'll get those drinks for you" the barman went to get the wine.

The 3 women sitting at the bar when Trigger came over noticing Rosa was there "Your highness I'm surprised to see you here" Rosa understood Trigger's surprise at her being there however deep down she wanted to meet him anyway and took the night off so that she could do just that and on the advice of her mom to have a little fun in her life.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr trigger, I must thank you for saving me, Avril and the other refugees on Tyler island" Rosa spoke with the same politeness that she was known for that Trigger had heard over the radio during the first combat sortie at fort greys.

The Scrap Queen however got off her chair "Trigger did i tell you that i think you are good looking, a reckless dumbass but hot pilot and would kill to date" Rosa and Cynthia snickered with laughter that Avril was flirting with Trigger

"I have never seen someone so beautiful until I met you Avril, I can tell that you care about the people you make planes for, I still remember when you got mad at me for running my F-15 off the dummy runway and when you threw wrenches at me after I got sand in the plane form that massive sandstorm." Trigger spoke giving Avril a compliment "Avril are you mmph!" Avril pulled Trigger into kiss who melted into the kiss as Avril wrapped her arms around Trigger "Avril if you want me all you had to do was ask me out."

Cynthia and Rosa burst into laughter at the corney pick-up line they had heard from the osean big shot who was lost at why they were laughing "Boss you may a great fighter pilot, she is flirting with you and you just said the most corny pick-up line which clearly worked" Cynthia bluntly said as she and Rosa calmed down from their laughing fit.

"I think you'll love the new Queen's Custom Mk.2 part I have been developing over the last month for your new plane whatever you choose" Avril said having finished the component last week and had it stored at her grandparent's home on Tyler Island.

"Avril I think you'd make a good pilot, I mean you still have your private pilot's licence." He spoke softly as they leaned against the pool table.

"Trigger, My Granddad didn't want me joining the Osean Air Defence Force after a family loss." She replied to him feeling sadness swelling within her.

"Well I do understand that since I was hesitant to consider joining the air force after my dad died but after a while I decided to join so that no-one else would have to suffer what I went through, not if I could help it". He said but he said pulling out the locket placing it Rosa's hand.

"Oh Rosa I have something that belonged to Emmanuelle D'Elise." She opened the locket recognising the woman in the picture.

"My Grandma's locket where did you find it?" she asked wondering how Trigger had found it since she thought it was lost when her granddad died.

"I found it in the wreckage of an old Erusean transport on a mountainside near cape rainy, I don't get how the rescue teams failed to find it when the Stratoliner crashed but I never peeked and planned to return it to you if we ever met."

Rosa gripped the locket tightly then carefully placed it round her neck.

"I'm thinking of taking a vacation soon since my Citation 2SP's lease to the osean air force ends later this week" he spoke with a happy tone thinking of all the place they could go.

"Wait you own a citation 2?" Avril asks surprised and baffled that Trigger owned a corporate jet even though he didn't seem like a rich guy given the salary he probably had.

"The aircraft belonged to my granddad, he gave it to Me and Laura and before we joined the Osean Air Defence Force, both of us trained and certified to fly the citation 2 but the osean air force needed extra transport so they leased it form my family but every penny they pay for its use goes to maintaining the plane since its been out of production for quite a while, spare parts are becoming a problem" Trigger explained knowing the osean air force would have his plane at Selatpura by Wednesday.

"Avril when we first met you were limping but I was wondering why you had a limp on your right leg?" Rosa couldn't help but asking.

Avril sighed leaning on the bar "I was in Starfighter crash at the start of the war, when I took my newly restored F-104C Starfighter on its maiden flight but thanks to an f-15 eagle shooting me down, my Starfighter crashed during an emergency landing that destroyed the aircraft and broke my leg very badly which I had to get a metal support to save my leg however I have learned of a procedure developed by the emmerians that would restore my ability to walk without a limp but it will be expensive to get the operation."

Rosa however knew she owed a favour, Avril for saving her after she jumped off the elevator "I could pay for it since I owe you one for saving me after I was injured by that missile" Cynthia was wondering about that since they had to bug out before they knew what had happened.

"So what happened?" Cynthia asked wanting to know what she had missed when they had to retreat to the Admiral Andersen.

"When that missile exploded some shrapnel hit me and I need surgery and a blood transfusion to survive and Avril is a compatible blood type so she donated her blood to me" Rosa explained. Trigger and Avril quietly slipped away.

**Outside over Gunther bay near the dockyards**

an Aurelian Air Force C-130H-30 Hercules cargo plane was descending through 10000 feet while in the cockpit First officer John Marinus was looking for the lights of Selatapura "Ahh city in sight."

Captain Sophie Schnelle was flying the Hercules "So got any plans for this evening Sophie" John asked his colleague who was watching for aircraft.

Flight engineer Jennifer Drake who had just finished reading the approach chart for the airport "Yes she and I are going on a date this evening".

John was surprised "When did she ask you out?"

Sophie chuckled at John's question "She asked before we left Sachana air base."

_Sachana air base, Raven woods_  
_November 19th 2019_  
_08:15am_

_Air Force 075 was parked up as loadmaster Lara Domingo closed the rear cargo door when flight engineer Jennifer Drake who had just finished her walk around of the Hercules but saw the captain and first officer walking towards the plane "Jen you like the captain more than you are willing to admit just tell her how you feel" Flight lieutenant Jason Green spoke having seen that Jennifer was completely smitten with the captain._

_Before Jenna could respond, Captain Sophie Schnelle walked up to the flight engineer "Morning Jennifer how's the aircraft."_

_Jennifer stuttered at first but composed herself "She's all fuelled up and ready to go but I have something to ask."_

_Sophie was secretly thinking that Jennifer was going to ask her out on a date since she knew Jennifer was in love with her and knew that she was in love with her flight engineer._

_"When we reach Selatapura would you like to have dinner with me?" Jennifer asks her captain who was mentally screaming with happiness._

_"Yes I'd gladly go to dinner with you when we reach Selatapura" she replied sounding giddy._

As the C-130 cargo plane passes through 7000 feet

"John you have the controls I need to go into back to chat with the loadmaster" Jennifer knew this was just an excuse for Sophie to think over something so she got up form her seat following the captain.

In the Cargo Hold

Sophie and Jennifer stepped into the hold when Sophie quickly turned around to face Jennifer "Jen is there something you want to tell me?" Sophie asked and Jennifer took a second to gather her thoughts.

"I've been madly in love with you since we started flight school and I've wanted you for so long, you are very beautiful, charming I like" Sophie stopped her with a single finger to the lips.

"I've been in love with you Jennifer Drake ever since we first met in high school, when you asked me to the prom on graduation night I was over the moon a shy but eager to learn girl asking a nobody like me to the biggest event of high school, someone who would let me cry on her shoulder when I had a bad breakup and someone I care passionately about more than my rank or career that I would give up in a heartbeat just to be with you" Jennifer cupping Sophie's chin with her hand pulling her into a passionate kiss which made Jennifer's legs feel like jelly.

The sound of clapping broke the calm of the moment "Finally" Lara said as her finger hit the intercom "I guess you won the bet boys".

The 2 women broke their kiss with Sophie giving Lara a death glare but Flight lieutenant Jason Green who had put away his maps having overheard the conversation between the captain and flight engineer through the intercom "Captain your affections for Jennifer were not subtle, John, Lara and I had a bet that either you or Sophie would make a move I choose Sophie while the boys thought Jen would be the one".

Sophie and Jen walked up the stairs scowling at their colleagues for betting on their love lives when Jen felt the plane shake "Just minor turbulence I hope".

The captain and flight engineer sat back down in their seats "John could you hand me the descent checklist please" Jennifer asks her friend who reached for a notepad.

The C-130 was descending through 6000 feet when a stream of pulse laser fire struck the rudder mounting points and rear fuselage of the Hercules tearing the vertical stabiliser form the tail that sent the Hercules sliding to the left and beginning to pitch down "What the hell was that?!" Sophie shouted in concern as she pulled back hard on her control column and turned it hard to the right trying to pull the plane out of the dive 'Terrain Terrain Pull up Terrain!'

"John help me" Sophie cried out as John yanked the control back and to the right as hard as he could trying to help Sophie pull the Hercules out of the increasing banking nosedive who could see the ground emerge from the clouds, Sophie let go of the yoke with her right hand turning quickly stretching her hand out trying to reach Jennifer who was doing the same, their fingers touch when seconds later the Hercules's left wing strikes a stack of crates where after nose smashes into the dockyard concrete floor while the rest of the airframe breaks up in a huge fireball that shot high into the sky spreading debris all over the dockyard.

A/n

so I hope you enjoyed that and sorry it took so long, I had no internet for 5 weeks and now its back I'm raring to get more writing done but I'm trying to decide if Avril should become a fighter pilot so please let me know what you think and the Osea O1 is Strangereal's version of formula 1.

I finally saved Sol 2 in mission 20 given that I was never able to, it is a great and chapter 1 has been fixed up, so if you wish, give me any feedback and I'll see you all next time


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft mentioned i only own the ocs featured

Sophie awoke in the debris field scarcely surveying the burning wreckage spotting Jennifer laying in some debris near her so she crawled over to her wounded squad mate.

"Hey Jen stick with me please," Sophie said wearily as she critically examined her most beloved friend.

"What hit us?" Jen, who had no idea what had occurred to them.

Sophie was grievously wounded from the violent crash to look around, "I don't know."

Jen smiled, "On our date tonight I would have proposed you to be my girlfriend."

Sophie blushed hotly while uncontrollable tears rolled down her bloodied face,"I would have said yes."

Jen could feel her unconsciousness slipping "Kiss me please."

Sophie captivated her into a passionate kiss which made Jennifer's wounded legs feel like jelly but knew her strength was about to give so she placed her sore head on Jen's bruised shoulder as she inevitably passed out the arms of her lover.

Jennifer could believe her strength was fading, she knew in her heart that neither of them would fly again however with Sophie in her arms.

She could instantly feel the last of her strength giving out, in the wounded arms of Sophie, she'd be more than ready, Jennifer's eyes slipped closed.

The overwhelming sound of sirens roused Jennifer's urgent attention "Soph we're being rescued."

She started involuntarily shouting frantically as the local firefighters started fighting the extensive fire when two paramedics came over to them.

"My wounded captain and I desperately require urgent help; I can't feel my left leg please help us.

"The paramedics moved the pair into a double stretcher bed.

Sophie roused "Jen are we safe" Jennifer smiled wearily at her wounded captain nervously stroking her bruised forehead.

"We are safe my love." Jennifer said as tears rolled down her lovely face as they were gently placed into the Selatapura ambulance.

Back at the restaurant

Cynthia & Avril & Rosa were sitting comfortably at the polished bar with three used glasses of erusean red wine when Enn breaking news bulletin came on illuminated screen.

"We have received reports that military cargo plane has crashed into the Selatapura dockyards, paramedics have found two wounded survivors at the crash site while firefighters continue searching for other survivors we will update when new information becomes available."

Avril promptly pulled her 2nd wine glass of the memorable night to up her rosy lips "This is excellent but potent stuff." Rosa didn't think it was potent enough so she appropriately called over the local bartender.

"Do you have any 1995 erusean pink wine?" wanting Avril, Trigger and Cynthia to sample it, the three experienced pilots pondered what the wine was.

"What is 1995 Erusean pink wine?" Cynthia inquired politely to the regal woman sitting next to them who after being politely handed five bottles of the premium wine in an ice bucket who carefully poured a polished glass for each of the three women who guzzled it up in no time.

"Woah, that is undoubtedly strong hey Scrap queen & Rosa you good for another round?" Rosa knew instantly she didn't recognize her limits.

"Oh definitely" Rosa and Cynthia said happily cause they merely wanted to properly enjoy the peaceful night. The women instantly noticed the bird tattoo on Avril's right arm with Rosa breaking the ice "where did you get that tattoo Avril?"

Avril looked at her visible tattoo remembering when she got it "I got this on my 21st birthday last year."

Cynthia's personal phone rang, "Excuse me a moment."

She got up from her seat to go and accept the urgent call outside since it was incredibly deafening inside the restaurant.

"Sure I'll save a drink for you," Rosa said as she poured another glass of the wine.

Cynthia stepped outside while The Princess noticed her friend staring off into the distance at the Osean pilot in front of them.  
"Avril... are you OK"? She asked the Scrap Queen.

"Huh?! Yeah, Yeah, I'm fine!" She answered somewhat quickly and tried to avert her gaze, but it was too late. Rosa followed her gaze and noticed that she was eyeballing Trigger. A small grin broke out on Rosa's face.  
"Avril..." Rosa started in a sing song voice.

"Cossette, come on. That's creeping me out." Avril replied nervously with her eyes darting towards Trigger.

"Does the Scrap Queen have a little... crush on the Osean pilot she's taking care of?" Rosa poked her side and giggled.

"Damnit, Cossette..." Avril turned away from her, but still quickly glanced at Trigger. This didn't go by unnoticed.

"You keep looking at him..., oh my god, you do!" Rosa brought her hand up to her mouth and giggled again.

Avril gave a dejected sigh as she let her shoulders fall.

Trigger had been pondering something ever since he carefully surveyed the charred wreckage of the starfighter. "Avril I was wondering why an f-104 starfighter, one of the most notorious difficult aircraft to fly?".

"Well my deceased grandfather was a former f-104c starfighter driver before he transferred to the osean army, he ideally wanted to operate the aircraft again but instead I achieved precisely that."

They saw Cynthia walk back in looking profoundly sad, Avril & Rosa could undoubtedly see something was bothering the girl.

"Is something wrong," Rosa asks nervously, Cynthia sighed as looked on the news that confirmed the two wounded survivors were her old childhood friends.

"I only just received an imperative call from the local hospital that the flight engineer and captain onboard who were childhood friends of mine while I was growing up in Aurelia are in critical condition after their transport plane crashed 30 minutes ago."

"Cynthia, I'm certain you'll get the people responsible."

The female strider pilot calmly said to the chief mechanic, "Yeah we will definitely get them."

"You know, Avril I never thought you would be the affectionate type who'd land herself a guy but the three strikes himself." she chuckled lightly getting up from her seat strolling over to the restaurant front man.

"I'd like to reserve a table for two for tomorrow night for my friends Avril and Trigger." Avril and Trigger had followed her however were too late to stop her.

"Trigger you, and Avril were unsubtle with how you act towards each other so I decided to set you up on a date, think of it my way to say thank you to you Avril for aiding me out when I required help."

The 3 walked back to the bar "I believe cape rainy air base will be willingly returned to your country sometime after repairs form an air attack by radicals are complete."

Both could tell form Avril's body language that she was too distracted looking thoughtfully at Trigger as they sat back down.

"You have to admit he is undoubtedly good-looking and kinda hot" Avril, consuming her wine.

Huxian, Trigger and Rosa promptly took the shot of wine that Avril had poured out for them.

Avril merely stared into Trigger's eyes carefully slipping her wine slowly savouring the excellent taste of the liquid.

He could smell the wine on her breath, "Erusean pink wine form 2018 a remarkably pleasant year."

"Jeager can we talk outside?" he politely asked, it was clear to Jaeger that something was on Trigger's mind.

**Outside the restaurant**

Trigger leaned against the pillar "Trigger is something or someone on your mind?"

Trigger paused for a moment, deep in thought for a few minutes.

"I think I'm in love with this woman have been for some. She is undoubtedly a skilled mechanic; I'm honestly indebted to her for all the work she has done to my plane, I genuinely want to amply repay her for that by buying that starfighter."

"Therefore reveal to her how you feel."

Trigger sighed "Wiseman told me that too."

Jaeger was taken back that Wiseman knew about Trigger's feelings for this woman even before his death at farbanti. "Like i said tell her how you feel."

Avril stepped outside "Hey Trigger can I talk to you?"

"Sure." he sat down at the table.

"So the war is now over, but I want to thank you for all your help with my planes Scrap Queen."

"And i should thank you for protecting me on the ground."

"I still remember that dance we did" Avril flashed him a scowl but he could read some amusement in her look. "I'll still make a dancer out of you yet Scrap Queen."

Trigger looked up at the night sky."Do you remember the night we had together after the alicorn was sunk?"

"Yeah i do."

"Seeing you and hearing brought all my memories and my deep feelings for back and i can't ignore the feelings that never went away after you left us."

Avril leaned back on her seat "After i left, i felt so empty, so alone liking someone was missing from my life." Trigger felt a pang inside knowing that was the same emptiness that he had.

"That's exactly how I felt."

Avril thought back to the events of Tyler Island and how she felt seeing his eagle racing towards her "When I saw that so alone like someone in an eagle racing to our rescue made me feel so much joy and hope that I would make it out of that mess alive along with everyone else."

Trigger couldn't help but have a linger thought that they might never see each other again after today "Avril I want to first want to thank you for saving my ass again." Avril could resist smiling "I want to tell you that i love you so very much and that my feelings for you never disappeared and have been with me ever since we first met at Zapland and they only got stronger after you helped us with the alicorn."

Avril quietly listened as Trigger poured his heart out. She pulled him into a deep hug as he lifted her off the seat into his arms she held onto him tightly. "Trigger I missed you so much after I left you that Sunday and I felt so empty like there was a black hole in my heart. Seeing you flying was something I didn't think I'd see again but it made me so happy. I love you Trigger and i'm not going anywhere my dumbass."

She connected her lips with his as they held each other even more tightly, the world seemed to fade from their minds cause at that moment nothing else mattered to them but each other.

Avril had come outside, she had heard what Trigger said, he could see the emotional tears gently rolling down her youthful face."he wanted to overwhelmingly support her but didn't know all the personal info.

Nagase had come outside catching the pair kissing.

"On Thursday, it will be precisely 9 miserable years since he willingly sent my dad on an overseas mission for the osean air force that he never returned from."

Nagase patiently listened to Avril tell her how her dad had died during the war she and Blaze fought in, she thought back to the day she, Blaze and Grimm attacked cruik fortress.

"Was it a pilot from the fortress who killed your dad, there was a Yuktobanian squadron stationed at cruik fortress that flew Gripens, was it one of the Wisna squadron that left you fatherless?" she wanted to know cause she knew Avril needed to know her father's killer had paid the price for what they had done.

"Yeah that's what I was told when one of my deceased grandpa's war buddies informed us that my dad wasn't coming home from Yuktobania, the news practically broke me."

Nagase could see Avril trying to keep her emotions in check; she didn't want to break down. She could see that she held anger inside her heart since the war had hurt her 9 years ago, she felt she should help her move on.

Pops having come outside to get some fresh air but what she said next surprised them both.

"I blame Harling for dispatching my dad on that mission that got him killed." Both pops and Kei could sense the anger on her voice, they both came to the realisation that Avril was condemning the wrong man and felt she needed to learn the truth.

Miss Mead please sit down I do get why you blame Mr Harling for what happened to your father, I think you deserve the truth about who sent your dad on the mission that took him form you, screw classified information."

Avril sat down at the table feeling all her grief coming back "it wasn't Mr Harling who ordered your dad's squadron to attack Cruik, it was former vice President Applerouth who ordered the attack on the Cruik fortress."

Avril picked up a cigarette ashtray, propelling it against the wall smashing it, Pops and Trigger to hear who wanted to intervene but pops placed his shoulder nodding his head that Trigger to let Nagase support her through this.

"The person who sent your dad on that mission was Applerouth since Mr Harling was being held captive in Stier castle since his transport made an emergency landing at Akerson hill in late October just before the land invasion on Yuktobanian soil."

Avril felt angry at Nagase from telling her that Harling didn't kill her dad but she felt her grief and pain that she has had with since the day her father died leaving her like it was being carried away by an angel.

"I know its hard to forgive someone for a perceived injustice, it took me and blaze time to move on from Chopper's death over November city, for a while I held a hatred for yukes after they took him from us but in the years after the war, I learned to let go as I realised despite being a Razgriz who ended the war, I was also a victim of the war its not kind and will leave a lasting impact on everyone."

Trigger knew Avril will need time to fully heal, and he thought maybe a day away from everything might help "Avril I have holiday time off left to use and I think a day off would be good for both of us given the hell we went through that I can't even begin to imagine what that felt like."

"Yeah, I'd like that but how are we going to get there?"

Pops, Kei, Avril and Trigger came back in from the cold night seeing Huxian and Rosa waiting for them to come back.

"So Trigger has offered to take me out on a beach day." Avril wanted to pour herself a drink but ultimately decided she didn't want to be alone anymore.

"How?"Rosa pondered since Trigger had told them he owned a citation private jet.

"Well I can hire a boat to get us there."

Rosa confused at how Trigger knew the what the wine was from just the smell "How did you know Mr trigger?"Trigger turned to face Rosa, graciously accept the drink from the princess taking it in one go much to Rosa's surprise.

"That, is some strong stuff, and I've had this vintage before when me and Laura graduated the osean air force flight academy me, my sister Laura and my mum went out to celebrate and we tried a bottle of this wine and Laura loved it, I think my mom is keeping one for when me and Laura return home from deployment.

"So Rosa any sights you recommend around the area?" Rosa thought about that for a few minutes until 1 place came to mind but she knew why she thought of it since she felt that Avril was in love with Trigger since she had mentioned him a few times but always shrugged off her questioning.

"Well there is the lover's lagoon; it's a popular spot that according to erusean legend if you see the erusean fireflies with someone you like on full moon night like the next two nights, then your destined to become lovers" Rosa explained as Trigger and Avril pour themselves a glass of wine.

"Yes people often go swimming in the lagoon since the water's mineral rich are apparently from what I've been told good for the skin."

"Hey Dumbass want to go see this Lover's lagoon place with me tomorrow?".

"Yeah I'd gladly go with you, I'll pack camping gear in case we need it" Trigger mentally making a list got up with Avril following behind with Huxian following up the rear.

"So everyone since Long caster is paying tonight, and he receives quite a bit so Let's see how long we can last."

"I guess I should inform you that since our chief mechanic had to retire early, Avril mead you are officially the chief mechanic of the lrssg congratulations."

The group clapped as Avril took in the fact that she was now responsible for the lrssg aircraft.

Meanwhile several thousand miles away a c-17a globemaster 3 was flying over the waters of the gulf of saint ark when a pair of f-14d super tomcats flew along side the c-17 "unidentified aircraft you are violating restricted military airspace change course or you will be shot down"

The two pilots could see that the f-14d belonged to the eursean air force and had six aim-54c phoenix long range missiles and aim-9m sidewinder missiles.

"Okay we'll comply changing course" the captain said begrudgingly as the 2nd f-14d moved to allow the c-17 by but several miles away ahead of them them a flight of two aircraft that had four belly hardpoints housing four aa-13 arrow long range air to air missiles, the wing hardpoints each housing an aa-11 archer and an aa-6 acrid semi active air to air missile were beyond visual range of the super tomcats and globemaster but the 2nd aircraft already had a lock on them "Juno 1 this is Juno 2 targets locked, permission to fire" the flight lead made sure there were no other planes in the area.

"Juno 2 cleared to fire" Juno 2 shot off four aa-13 arrow long range missiles that streaked towards their targets.

The c-17 completed its turn the co-pilot looked over his shoulder to watch the f-14s explode in mid-air when the 3rd missile exploded outside the c-17's cockpit killing the flight crew instantly who slumped over in their seats when the 2nd arrow missile hit the elevator sending the c-17 into a nosedive.

inside the cabin, McKinsey could feel the airplane diving but the g-forces pressed him down in his seat so he tried unbuckling his seat belt so he could get to the cargo hold as the plane dived towards the water below unfortunately for McKinsey the sound of ripping metal caught him by surprise when the rear section broke away form the fuselage which sent the c-17a into an even steeper dive.

The c-17's four turbofan engines broke away from the wing as the cockpit area separated plunging downwards until it slammed to the water pancaking on impact.

McKinsey saw the surface of the sea ahead of "Damm you support" The midsection struck the water and sinking to the depths below.

**Back in Selatapura**

Trigger and Count sat talking to former air force pilots unaware that their old co had just been downed and was dead "No way yuke terrorists threw a chair and a tv at Bana city police."

"Yeah that's what actually happened" Blaze calmly spoke when Clown decided to jump in on the chit chat.

"Did Trigger tell you about how he lagooned his f-16?" Clown asked the other strider squadron members who swayed their head but Trigger sighed and commenced his story about that incident.

_Fort greys air base_  
_East usea_  
_May 30th, 2019_  
_17:30 pm_

_Trigger was at 1000 feet in a heavily damaged fighter jet returning from a disastrous mission "Mage 2 cleared to land" Trigger pressed the nose down 10 degrees "Mage 2 reduce speed to 134 knots" the tower controller could see the fighting falcon was coming in fast but as Trigger was reducing the throttle descending through 300 feet "Mage 2 elevate your nose your very low" Trigger yanked the stick as far back as he could go trying to make the crippled fighter climb but the plane still descending, Trigger's hud projected the aircraft speed dropping to 117 knots while descending as the falcon splashed onto the soft sand but skidded into the lagoon coming to rest in the shallow water, Clown and Knocker watching what had just happened "Tower Trigger is in the lagoon."_

_Trigger released his canopy "Well that didn't go as I had planned."He climbed out of the cockpit when a Fort Greys rescue boat stopped by._

The three strider squadron members were surprised Trigger had landed his jet in a lagoon on a landing but Count then decided to chime in,"I remember when Trigger ended up in the dirt on his first zapland landing."

_444th air base, Zapland_  
_East usea_  
_July 1st 2019_  
_09:50 am_

_"Spare 15 cleared to land, we don't want a wreck blocking the runway" the zapland controller spoke harshly over the radio, Trigger drove the down 10 degrees while throttling back but he noticed that the gauges were not showing much of a reduction in engine thrust but he checked his hud noticing he was 300 feet over the sea and still going 275 knots, without even thinking he pulled back on his stick trying to get the eagle up to 1000 feet._

_The f-15 despite being fully configured for landing respond instantly climbing to 1000 feet before Trigger decided to make for the dummy runway since the Zapland runway wasn't going to be long enough to stop in time._

_"Zapland tower spare 15 is going around, will attempt land on the dummy runway" the controller in the tower was struggling to believe that Trigger would even attempt something so foolish._

_He banked the airplane getting it lined up for the dummy runway while descending again pulling back the power to bring his speed down but still it was slow to bleed off excess airspeed when he felt a thump as the eagle touched down further than Trigger had expected so he pulled the throttles to reverse, pressing on the brakes as hard as he could while kick the rudder to try and stop the plane in time but alas he had run out of runway as the jet ran across the dirt careening past some mothballed super hornets when his plane at last stopped inches from a hill "I lost a lot of money for that Trigger you will be going to solitary for that."_

_Trigger didn't care at that point consider how a plane made from scrap nearly put him in the sea._

As Trigger concluded the story, Cynthia was thinking back to her two crashes however Trigger had noticed she was thinking about something "Cynthia want to recount a story with your friends?"

Cynthia leaned back "Yeah while you may have lagooned a fighting falcon and run a scrap eagle off a runway, I lost both a hornet and super hornet so are you sitting comfortably then I'll begin."

"I was born in a little town outside Santa Elva, it was rough, beatings, rapes and gang violence was routine but there was one gang that had moved from leasath that started messing up stuff but aurelia's economy was not good at the time, so food was so expensive that meant I and my dad had to shoplift to get food to help my family but I was constantly teased over the fact that I was not in a gang, my friends that I grew up with Sophie Schnelle and Jennifer drake defended me from a leasath gang that threatened to firebomb my house cause I didn't take their protection offer and join their gang, my dad was offered a job in osea so we emigrated to downtown oured but I was still teased for being a foreigner but after I got my dual citizenship with my parents support, I joined the osean air force academy in 2007 when they lowered the entry age to 19 but after graduation I was assigned to the Osean navy carrier barbet in the omega squadron but I had a near fatal crash on the barbet while responding to an air attack in November city".

Blaze and Nagase knew that day well.

_29th November 2010_  
_O.f.s Barbet_  
_Pacific Ocean_  
_16:55 pm_

_Cynthia Saito climbed into her f-18c hornet fighter "Omega 3 scramble emergency launch" the hornet was pushed on to the elevator as Huxian started up the pair of f404 turbofans as the elevator rose up to the deck, Huxian taxied the hornet to the catapult that launched her fighter off the ship and she climbed away from the ship, the cac officer's voice came over the radio "Omega 3 form up with Omega 1, 2 and 4 and head for November city to assist the wardog squadron" the f-18s turned towards November city._

_Over November city_

_The omega squadron hornets arrived in the November city airspace "Omega 3 to wardog 1 can you hear me" the radio was silent for a moment but an exhausted voice spoke over the radio._

_"Wardog 1 here need a situation update" Blaze calmly said but Cynthia could tell that the wardog flight lead was tired "we were engaged by several yuke fighters I think 55 enemy aircraft were shot down."_

_Cynthia listened to Blaze, she flew by the stadium with her visor up spotting the smoke trail coming from the centre "Thunderhead I see a smoke trail coming from the centre of the stadium."_

_Instead of thunderhead responding, a female voice broke in over the radio "Wardog 3, Chopper is kia" Cynthia heard the sound of crying over the radio but she turned her head to see the three tomcats flying in front and below her hornet when they flew in formation before they turned towards the south as the omega squadron turned back towards the carrier._

_Over the Pacific Ocean_

_Cynthia was heading back to carrier Barbet with the sun just about to go down "Omega 3 cleared to land" the carrier controller announced over her radio, Cynthia's f-18 hornet descended through 900 feet with its flaps fully down with the arrestor hook and landing gear down but 2 minutes from touch down she immediately checked her instruments seeing her speed was higher than it should be and that her engines were producing more power than she needed knew quickly what to do._

_Cynthia pulled the nose up adding power to go around but felt the plane was climbing too rapidly as she began her turn to make a 2nd attempt "Omega 3 land asap what's wrong" Cynthia levelled the aircraft at 1000 feet before get her bearings._

_She turned around lining up with the carrier quickly putting it into shallow descent but looked over her shoulder to see a c-2r greyhound transport plane ahead of her and tried to reduce the power to slow it down for landing and maintain separation but the thrust didn't decrease, she tried twice more times but got no response "Mayday mayday Omega 3 declaring an emergency I have jammed throttles," the carrier controller quickly instructed the c-2 to go around and hold while the deck crew got a crash barrier out to try and stop Cynthia's hornet when it touched down._

_Cynthia glanced at her airspeed indicator that read 299 knots hitting 300 when she felt the aircraft touch the deck but run right through the cable and crash barrier so quickly that she hit her ejection button that shot her and the canopy from the aircraft as it rolled off the deck ploughing into the ocean breaking up on impact, she drifted down until she strikes the water quickly ditching her chute when the sound of a familiar helicopter dropped a life ring that she without hesitation gripped it watching as her remains of her hornet slipped beneath the waves._

"Cynthia, I'm sorry for what the Razgriz had to do to your shipmates when they sank the barbet in the ceres ocean" Nagase said having been there.

"It's alright Nagase as I learned from the recent war, it's hell and no-one gets to decide whose side you are on or who lives and who dies."

"Kei should we tell them given that on at midnight on new year's day it will come out" Blaze said looking around to make sure it was safe.

"Yeah Cynthia should know the truth" Kei declared but her gaze returned to Pops and Jack who quietly nodded "Cynthia, me and Blaze were part of the flight who sank the barbet."

"Wait does that means you are" Trigger said as he realised that there was only one way Blaze and Nagase could have known about the ship being sunk and that the Razgriz sank the ship "You're two of the Razgriz."

"Yeah I was the flight lead and Kei was my wingwoman in the squadron."

"So why weren't you on the Barbet when it was sunk?" Nagase wondered as she had visited the memorial for the people who had died during the previous war, every name on the list of the barbet, she had vowed to herself to never end another life again.

"Well I was presented an upgrade to the super hornet, so I took it and was dropped off at mc nealy air force base, the day before the barbet was sunk."

_A year later at Mc nealy air force base_

_On a cold November morning Cynthia climbed into her f-18f super hornet fighter with her weapon systems officer commander Sophie Schnelle "Morning Cynthia are doing another air to air intercept or is it something different today."_

_"Well given that your exchange assignment ends today and your planning to be captain of a Hercules within the next few months while Jennifer is training to be flight engineer for the c-130 who knows you both may fly together but you still have that crush on Jen?"_

_"Yeah I still do I'm just too nervous to tell her cause what if she rejects my feelings" but Cynthia who had started up the engines and began taxing to the runway who looked over her shoulder to see on the middle and outer wing pylon racks of six 1000ib mk-83 bombs and a rack of four 500ib cbu-87 munition bombs and a pair of external fuel tanks on the inner wing and centreline pylon with a sidewinder on the wingtip rails._

_"So I guess today we are on a bombing mission" Cynthia spoke over the radio as she got her super hornet configured for take-off and programmed the altitude they'll fly at till they get to the bombing range._

_"White eagle two you are cleared to take off." Cynthia advanced the throttles as Sophie read back the clearance._

_The super hornet roared down the mc nealy runway everything seemed normal, Cynthia pulled the nose up lifting the super hornet into the sky._

_The super hornet climbed into the sky with the autopilot on, she pressed on her right rudder as she rolled the stick right to turn the plane west but the rudder didn't respond so she attempted once more but got nothing so she pressed the button to disengage autopilot but nothing happened._

_Cynthia looked to Sophie who had already armed the bomb release "Drop them."_

_Cynthia pressed the button on her stick, the super hornet shuddered as the 12,000 pounds worth of bombs fell from the fighter towards the sea they hoped none would hit osean navy vessels._

_The f-18f super hornet flew on for 4 hours but the low fuel warning alarm blared "Soph where do we put this baby down?"_

_"I see a decommissioned air base straight ahead."_

_Cynthia looked on as the ground get closer blocking out the ground warning, the super hornet exhausts touched the ground as the airframe scraped along the ground, the nose kicked up sparks and smoke as it slid down the taxiway ultimately coming to a rest at the turning point towards the runway._

_A man and a black Labrador dog having observed the super hornet's belly landing rushed over to offer assistance, he pulled the external canopy release._

_"Thank you kindly sir, but who are you and where are we?" Cynthia said unbuckling her harness pulling herself out then helped Sophie out of the cockpit._

_"Well I'm Peter n beagle ma'am and you're at the former sand island air base."_

_"So Peter is there a radio to call our base, so we can get lift back to mc nealy?"_

_"Mc nealy I'm scheduled to deliver some parts there this afternoon so how about you and your weapon system's officer fly in the jump seats on my flight to mc nealy."_

_"Sure." Peter, Cynthia and Sophie walked towards the c-1 trader._

"After that accident, I requested a transfer to the oadf and 3 years later I started flying the eagle in the Cyclops squadron."

Nagase and Pops had gotten out of their seat "Avril do you want to go outside for some fresh air?" Pops asked hoping that Avril would agree so they can try to support her with what's clearly bothering her.

"Sure I could do with some" Avril said as she along with Pops and Nagase headed for the back of the restaurant.

Outside the restaurant

Avril & Nagase and Pops walked outside the restaurant "Avril is something troubling you?"

"Over the last several months I've been having nightmares about the time I was flying my f-104 being shot down by the f-15" Pops and Kei could both understand what Avril was going through.

"Would it help if we talked about the times we were shot down?" Nagase asked the scrap queen who was tearing up thinking about those nightmares who merely nodded.

"I was shot down by a yuke missile battery in glubina then by Marcus weeks later but after I was rescued the first time, I had nightmares for a few weeks, I don't get them as often but they still happen from time to time."

"What happened in your nightmares Nagase?" Avril asked the former fighter pilot who leaned against the wall, the scrap queen holding her wine glass thought back to her nightmares.

"I see myself standing next to my burning plane as the fire sweeps through the airframe and by the time the rescue team form sea goblin reach my wreckage I'm toast."

Avril feel unnerved by what Kei had just said as that was exactly what she had seen in her nightmares from her crash but Pops knew like him they both went through similar experiences to him "I had similar nightmares for a while but I don't get them any more."

Pops understood what Avril was going through but calmly spoke the clarity in his voice when what he said next surprised both Avril and Kei "I was shot down by the demon lord of Ustio in my Mig-21bis fishbed kinda of embarrassing really" Peter said with a bit of laughter in his voice.

"Seriously Fishbed really" Avril said in disbelief as she thought how stupid the name of the fighter was but she could feel the nightmares in the back of her mind.

Bartlett who had come outside but had heard Kei and Peter discussing nightmares of being shot down which he like them had nightmares about being shot down but would never admit it.

"Hey captain weren't you shot down twice I think it was" Kei spoke sounding a little unsure about the exact number but Bartlett knew Nagase was trying to get him to share how he felt when he was shot down.

"Yeah twice, once in an f-14 and then an f-4g both times I got out but weapon systems officer was not so lucky, I blamed myself for backseater's death, I had nightmares like you guys did but worse."

"I'd see myself standing behind a wall watching as my plane went down and there was nothing I could do."

"So we all were shot down by our own country or the enemy and all suffered night terrors because of it, that sounds pretty fucking messed up to be honest."

The group returned and took their seats "Wait so you are half belkan?" Count asked his flight lead who had Avril leaning on his shoulder drinking up his erusean pink wine.

"Yeah me and my sister Laura are half Belkan on my mother's side of the family."

"Me and my sister Laura were born in a little village outside Solius Ortis in what is now ustio in 1991, my early life was quiet but my life changed when my dad Nathan Hansen left on a mission in may of 1995 to destroy a laser weapon in Belka, when the flight commander came to our house to tell us that Dad's Tanker plane had been lost with no survivors, Laura was devastated that dad wasn't coming home since he'd promised to take me and Laura camping that weekend, I took it worse, I ran up to my room, I slammed the door shut even barricaded myself in my room, I didn't want to come out, I wanted to stay there and cry cause I was not prepared to lose my dad when I did, I wanted him to be there at when I graduated flight school but thanks to some Belkan bastards, I was robbed of that."

"Laura had heard the door slamming, had come upstairs to check if I was alright, she knew I wasn't, she told me that, she'd never leave my side and for the next few months she helped me deal with the grief and pain of my dad's death, every year that goes by since my dad's death hurts less but hearing that Jaeger has a kid made me more determined to make sure no-one else has to suffer what I had to suffer."

"So how did your parents meet?" Trigger was blind-sided Jaeger of all people would ask that question.

My mother Lieutenant colonel Elena Hansen was born in the 50s. She had a harder up bringing than I had, after she graduated from the Belkan air force academy, she flew mig-21bis lancer interceptors, during the 70s, my mother met my dad when they were both stationed at what is Valais air base, my dad was on his first year as a kc-10 Extender pilot having transferred from the older kc-135a Stratotanker but Nathan began his air refuelling tanker career on the kc-97l Stratofreighter."

Avril placed her hand on his shoulder "The kc-97l Stratofreighter wait you mean the old 50s piston engined refuelling tanker developed from a c-97g Stratofreighter transport plane, the first ones ever used by the Osean air force."

"After Ustio was born, Elena started flying f-104g starfighters in the ground attack role, she and my dad married in 1988 but my mom retired from the ustio air force after dad died in 95, she didn't want to go back to the air force, but there was one day I'll always remember."

"And that would be?" Count asks his flight now curious about the day Trigger would always remember.

"The day I met the Demon lord waiting for ice cream."

_Many years ago_

_a young Scott and Laura and Elena were waiting in line "Come on mister what's talking so long?"He groaned his stomach growled but the man turned around handing Trigger his ice cream._

_Elena wanted to tell Trigger to not take receipt of gifts from strangers but when she saw who it was "It can't be Cipher?"_

_The former ustio air force pilot hands Elena and Laura ice cream but Trigger and Laura decided to race each other to finish their ice cream "I'm sorry about Nathan, he was a great pilot but they should never have sent the tanker into range of Excalibur.", Scott and Laura clutched their heads feeling a sharp pain in their heads._

_"Scott, Laura how many times have I told you, don't eat ice cream fast or you'll get brain freeze." Elena said with a sigh that her kids hadn't listened once again but Cipher knelt down looking at Scott and Laura._

_"Your children could be a great fighter pilot, who knows one or both of them might end being an ace of aces."_

_"Yeah they want to be like me when they grow up." she said as they sat down on a bench while Laura and Trigger continued eating their ice cream._

_"Elena, I wish you all the best with your family maybe we'll see each other again someday." Cipher disappeared into the crowd._

Everyone was silent Trigger had met a legend in the fighter pilot world.

"Mom, Laura and I moved to Osea in 99 to try and start a new life after our old one had been destroyed by the Belkan war, it was good but Laura and I knew what we wanted to be when we grew up, Mom knew it too, we wanted to follow in her footsteps."

"Once we turned 17, mom taught us to fly as a flight instructor in my granddad's citation 2 private jet, it took more than year to earn my private pilot's licence then when Laura and me turned 18."

"We joined the osean air force academy in 2009..." Trigger was saying but something bugged Blaze and Trigger noticed.

"Wait that means you'd have be in the war we fought in but I never saw you in Yuktobania."

"Well Me and Laura were shuttling people between air bases on the Osean mainland in the citation 2 during that war, we graduated in 2015."

Trigger already knew the question he was going to be asked "Where did my parents get the citation 2 well our grandparents bought it as a surplus in the late 70s."

"So where did you go after you graduated?" Count asked his flight lead.

"After I graduated I was assigned to a foxhound interceptor squadron but after 2 years, I flew fulcrums when my granddad passed away the year in 2017, the citation 2 was passed down to me and Laura but in early 2019, I got assigned to the iun's mage squadron, however I had be trained to fly single engine fighters since I had more experience in twin engine fighters."

Count thought about what he was but wondered where his sister had gone "So after you and your sister graduated, where did she go?"

"Well Laura after graduating was assigned to the f-2 of the 104th tactical strike fighter squadron Viper, she trained on the f-2b and has been flying f-2a for over 3 years, Count if you ever try to con my sister, I'll send you to strider 4 faster than Avril could tune up an f-15."

Count felt a little nervous but annoyed "Woah Trigger man, I'm not going to con your sister, I promise."Trigger, wanted to believe him but felt like he couldn't.

"Laura and I both dreamed of being as good as our mom was but I may have exceeded her, but I'd have to ask her about that however Laura never gave up on being as good as Elena Hansen was."

"So Trigger you speak Belkan right?"

"Yeah I do, but me and Laura were never very good at speaking Belkan, mine was poor but Laura's Belkan was not much better than mine."

Huxian thinking over the hike trigger took her on, "Trigger what do you, and Laura delight in doing?"

Well Hux, Me and Laura liked to undertake athletics at school and even at flight school, we were extremely competitive, I think we competed on to who could become an ace first, but we were supposed to go on a hike in September near cape rainy but she couldn't do it."

"I wanted to use my drag racers for drag air racing." Avril said leaning against the seat.

Huxian felt a little sad that her error had shattered Avril's dream of being an air racing pilot but Avril looked at her "Fox you haven't destroyed my dream, only just made me more determined to get back into the sky."

"So Avril how's the 92f handgun?" Nagase asked since she knew that oadf had changed its firearm rules after a base was overrun by erusean radical forces and the ground crews had no way to defend themselves.

Avril remembered when Trigger hauled her to the firing range; how he supported her in how to learn using firearms "Its easy to use once I knew how."

"Nagase here held up an entire yuke ground force with her 92f while we were trying to rescue her." Blaze explained remembering what Genette had told him days after they had rescued Kei.

Trigger who had put down his 4th or 5th cup of tea when a waiter came over with a large pizza "Count you never said what got you sent to the 444" Count leaning back in his seat "Trigger, Avril how about you 2 tell the rest of Strider how you both ended up at 444."

Avril and Trigger each explained how they ended up at the 444 "So let me see if I got this right you were falsely accused and found guilty of killing Harling but you weren't to blame" Huxian commented staring at Trigger "while you were flying a restored interceptor, got shot down by me and arrested for violations of wartime aviation regulations."

"Huxian's glare turned to Count"So what were those sin lines you didn't want to talk about during the njord fleet raid Count?".

Trigger who had finished a bite of pizza, "In the Spare squadron, the sin lines were used to show how severe the crime you had committed was that arrived you there, Count had 1 sin line while I had 3 sin lines."

Jaeger & Huxian stopped themselves for a few seconds as they processed the fact that their flight lead was convicted of a crime he didn't commit and his wingman was a convicted fraudster but Blaze who had been listening in "Me and the rest of my squadron were falsely accused of being spies."

"You're kidding! they accused you of being spies with let me guess unreliable evidence." Trigger couldn't believe how incompetent the oadf could be stupid enough to accuse who probably their best squadron at the time of being enemy spies with no credible evidence.

"Yeah that was what happened." Blaze remembering the annoyance he felt when he was accused of being spies given all they had done for osea.

Nagase,"I always wondered what happened to thunderhead after we were shot down?" Trigger knew Laura had informed him about who her Awacs was.

"Well My Sister's awacs is called thunderhead." Blaze and Nagase unsure if Laura's Awacs was the same Awacs they had during the war.

"Trigger did Laura tell you what she thinks of thunderhead?" Trigger leaning back with Avril leaning into him.

"Yeah she thinks he's bossy, stuck up for the rules and doesn't like to chit chat." Blaze and Nagase looked at each knowing that was their old Awacs.

"That's Thunderhead alright." Blaze confirmed as the pizza arrived when Nagase's grumbling stomach loudly rumbled "How about we tuck in to the food before it goes cold" Trigger and Blaze handed out slices of Pizza to the rest of strider, knocker, clown and Nagase and they all tucked into the pizza.

Several hundred miles away

two flights of four silver with green and grey camouflage growler electronic warfare aircraft, behind and below the growlers were a flight of twenty grey with silver camouflage stratofortress that had two racks of six cbu-89 cluster bombs mounted between the tf-33-p3 engine pods with a 20mm cannon in the tail but above the bomber stream were two flights of four sky blue with light blue and white camouflage super hornets flying top cover for the bombers.

The new arrows anti air defences came online but the growlers rolled inverted as they jammed the radar of the surface to air missile batteries which were instantly destroyed with the agm-88s but the growlers and super hornets spent the next 10 minutes clearing out the aa guns and sam sites, the b-52s began their final approach to the target as the growlers placed an electronic screen over the bombers.

The b-52h's iron bombs and cluster bombs rained down on new arrows base setting everything in their path.

The b-52s began their egress when two stratofortress broke up engulfed in flames as more sams downed eight more b-52 and two super hornet and a growler before the other super hornets took them out.

The b-52h, f-18 and ea-18s all climbed away from the burning new arrows air base.

**Back at the restaurant**

Trigger and Avril were sitting on a bench with their slices of pizza "I still remember when you came visit my hangar cause you felt lonely." Trigger knew Avril was right being cooped up in a cell was not fun.

_at Zapland several months ago_

_Avril was in her private hangar working on Tabloid's mirage when the sound of the door opening caught her ears, she raised her flashlight to the source the noise._

_Trigger shielded his eyes "Trying to blind me Scrap queen" he asked with a cheesy smile as Avril lowered her torch all while Trigger calmly with his hands behind his back walked over to the aircraft._

_"What do you want Dumbass feeling lonely in your cell?" she retorted, she felt happy that someone was coming to visit since she felt lonely working late at night._

_"Yeah it was lonely in the cell and I thought you could use some company so need any help?" Trigger asks as Avril handed him a uv light stick._

_"Yeah climb on to the top of wing and see if you can find a fatigue crack." Trigger pulled himself onto wing carefully scanning the wing until he reached the wing root seeing a fatigue crack the stretched from where the wing met the air intake right to where it meets the engine exhaust "Avril there is a big crack on this wing, there is no way Tabloid can fly this thing, if he does the wing will fail and the aircraft will crash and he'll die."_

_"Mckinsey will want to send him up anyway" she knew that the aircraft was not fit to fly "fuck as mechanic of this squadron, I'm grounding this aircraft."_

_Avril let out a yawn, Trigger knew she was exhausted so climbed down from the wing as she wrote in the log that the jet was to be grounded "Want to stay in my cell tonight you can have the bed and I'll sleep in the chair."_

_it took them a few minutes to walk back to Trigger's cell as Avril laid down on the bed while Trigger sat in the chair and they fell asleep to a peaceful rest._

_The next morning_

_Trigger was gently jogging down the flightline going at a slower pace than he would normally would as Avril jogged along side him "so how are you this morning Scrap queen?" Avril who was feeling tired trying to keep up with Trigger._

_They passed an su-33 that they knew belonged to Count with an f-104c starfighter that spare 3 flew next to it, Avril looked away from the jet, Trigger had seen she was hesitant to work on f-104s but she hadn't wanted to say why._

_"Trigger can you get a chair cause I need to rest." Trigger gently jogged into the hanger seeing his eagle as Avril slowly walked into the hangar. Trigger put the seat out, Avril took her seat as Trigger jogged down to the far end of the taxiway turning onto the runway._

**Back in the present**

"I remember when you asked me about what I saw while climbing through the space elevator." Avril knew that day well.

_November 1st 2019_  
_Admiral Andersen_  
_Gunther bay_  
_10:30am_

_Trigger's eagle touched down on the carrier deck as the deck crew came out along with Avril as watched Trigger power down his jet "Trigger meet me below" Trigger could read on her lips as he disconnected his oxygen mask and opened the canopy._

_He hauled himself from the cockpit stopping to take off his helmet leaving it on the seat, he made his way down to the walk at the gantry with a view out to sea "So before I took off to save the world, you asked me to tell you what the sky looked like?"_

_"Yeah I did, what did it look like?" Avril giddily asks wanting to know if it was like in her dreams,_

_"It was a dark blue but I've seen it from 80,000 feet maybe if I can, I'll show you someday, once you see the sky from 80,000 feet you never want to see it any other way."_

_"Trigger when I was 13 my dad died, during the last war osean forces were retreating after a failed raid on Cruik fortress on December 5th and my dad was in the rear guard covering the retreating osean fighters and fighter-bombers and got shot down by a Yuke air force Gripen."_

_"When you initially arrived at Zapland, I didn't desire anything to do with you, I indeed thought about thanking you for allegedly killing Harling."_

_"Avril I will not let that happen to you again, you have my word."_

_Trigger slowly and carefully brought Avril into an embrace softly stroking her hair "Well Avril, I can sympathise with you, I'm finding it hard to move on from my dad's death and its been over 24 years."_

_"Maybe we could share favourite stories about dad your it might help you begin to heal." Trigger said softly, Avril thought back to a happy time that she shared with her dad._

_"I remember when I was 9; my dad took me to the Oured observatory cause he had an old friend who worked there and let me use the telescope to see the stars in the night sky, they were beautiful."_

_"You've done the right thing by telling me about one of your best memories of your dad. Keep it buried inside you wouldn't have done any good."_

_Avril showed a weak smile as she sniffed._

_"Feel better." he raised his fingers onto her chin lifting her head letting her stare into his eyes. where's tough tomboy who calls me a dumbass that can keep me and my aircraft in top shape? Is she ready to come out?" Trigger's smile widened as he moved his hand along her side lightly tickling her._

_Avril gave a slight chuckle but pulled away then thumped Trigger's shoulder with her fist._

_"Ouch ow ok ok I get it you pack a mean punch." he rubbed the spot on his shoulder where she'd thumped him._

_"Oh shut up and give me a hug." Avril smiled as she and Trigger held each other tightly "Thank you Trigger, thank you." their foreheads touched briefly then their lips met, they fell into a passion filled kiss with their arms wrapped around each other but they broke the kiss._

_"So Avril you remember when I said some day I'd show you the dark blue sky from how high I've seen it?" Avril honestly had loved that idea and wanted to do that._

_"Of course" Trigger could read on Avril's face that she wanted to go up._

_"Well the osean air force will be retiring the mig-31 and I've been asked to take the old mig-31 up on its final flight, wanna come along and see the sky at 80,000 feet?"_

_Avril leaned back thinking about seeing the sky at a higher altitude than she had ever seen before. She felt excitement and the familiar rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins._

_"Yeah I'd like that very much Trigger." the pair stared up into the star filled night sky._

A/n

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I recently got a hold of the first ace combat game from 1995 although due to being so busy I haven't had a chance to play it yet although I will try to sometime I hope and thank you to K-nack7 for the help provided with this chapter


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft or cars mentioned

Outside Selatapura  
20:45 pm

a iun air force C-141B Starlifter was flying at 7000 thousand feet.

Inside the cabin

Nadine fisher base commander of the 104th tactical strike fighter squadron Viper was sitting uneasily in her chair with Captain Laura Hansen who was eager to get Selatapura to see her brother.

"Laura, how are you holding up?" Nadine inquired knowing what had happened earlier.

Nadine had a motherly grace in her voice that Laura liked since she and the rest of the squad saw Nadine as someone that they could share problems with and someone they respected enough that when she was mad with them for something they'd gladly listen and take what she had to say.

"I'm doing okay I just can't understand why the drones would kamikaze themselves into the base."

Nadine was baffled as to what she had seen "Look on bright side no-one on the ground was killed although we did lose the tanker but that is replaceable, personnel are not." Laura leaned back on the sofa, her mind thought back to what she had seen earlier today.

Cape Rainy Air Force base  
Northwestern Usea  
December 1st 2019  
07:30 am

Laura Hansen walked out onto the flight line seeing a hive of activity as marine blue Phantom 2 were being configured for a combat air patrol in the mountains surrounding cape rainy but she continued walking as supplies were loaded into hercules transports "hurry up Serpentina." Laura didn't mind people calling her by her tac name since she preferred it that way. She hurried up her pace seeing three marine blue F-2A viper Zero and a single XF-2C Super Viper Zero.

her gaze turned to the Super Viper Zero that had an external fuel tank on the inner wing hardpoint and four Hyper Velocity AIM-7M Sparrows on its middle and outer wing hardpoint and the wingtip rails had an AAM-3 with a woman that had a snake wrapped around her emblem on the tail and the number 9 below the canopy.

Laura preferred the HVAA since the semi active radar was not as reliable in a dogfight."

Captain Klaus decker who was a double ace from a war in the 60s & 70s looked at Laura who was checking over his F-2 "Good morning Serpentina are you well?"

Laura turned to look at Klaus who could see that she was eager to see her family again.

"I am Klaus, how are you?" she asks her flight lead who she looked up to who was old friends with her mother.

"I am doing well Laura eager for this war to end so I can retire again and for good this time." Laura knew Klaus was wanting to retire from the air force since he had left the oadf in the 2010s but was recalled to active service.

Roger Flynn and Axel Gilbert, who were talking by their F-2s, Laura considered them good friends, she got well with Axel and Roger who she felt treated her like a sibling, her thoughts were broken by the sound of two marine blue phantoms taking off for ground attack training mission.

"Morning boys how are you doing on this cold but lovely morning?" she asked wondering how they were holding up.

"I'm dong well just want the bloody war to end." Axel groaned as Roger kicked the nose gear tire of his plane "I thought the war ended when Trigger destroyed those two drones at the space elevator."

Laura sheepishly walked over to her jet "Should I tell them?" she asked herself, she over the course of the war she had been feeling that people expected her to pull miracles like her brother Trigger.

Laura hated this pressure, she was sure Klaus had seen her becoming more reckless lately, he probably had an idea that she was starting to crack under the weight of expectation.

"Klaus what's a girl to do, I feel like I'm suffocating on the expectation to pull miracles like Trigger?" Klaus knew what Laura was dealing with cause his dad was a triple ace in a war from the 50s and he felt expected to be as good as he was.

"Laura just tell them the truth." he told her as Roger and Axel had wandered over.

"Guys I have something to tell you. She calmly composed herself and her thoughts. "I actually know Trigger personally." Axel and Roger looked at her like they had been blind sided.

"Wait how do you know him personally?" Axel stated wondering why Laura was saying this.

Laura leaned against the wing tank "Trigger is my brother and I feel like I'm suppose to pull off miracles like him." Klaus had joined his teammates.

"Serpentina I know you think you must get miracles, you should ask Trigger about this." Klaus said softly as the pilots climbed into their F-2s and moments later were airborne.

"So Klaus what's the sortie today" Laura asks as she got comfortable for what she expected to a routine cap flight.

It had only been 15 minutes since they left cape rainy when Laura saw a ship below "Viper 1, I see a midway class aircraft carrier below me off to our right side can you confirm?"

Viper 1 banked his aircraft glancing over his wing to see a midway class ship.

"Confirmed a Midway class aircraft carrier at our two clock position." Klaus spoke seeing a ship he'd flown a phantom off during in the 1960s but something felt off about the ship.

The viper squadron watched as eight fighter jets launched from the carrier and began to climb after them when Laura recognised them from when she & Trigger and her mom had visited the osean navy museum.

"I see four F-9J Cougars with four F-11A Tigers approaching form five o clock low" the other three viper pilots were silent as the processed what Laura had just said.

Axel didn't believe what Laura had just said to them. "Viper four Laura are you joking right, those obsolete aircraft were retired over half a century ago, they are only seen at airshows." Laura was sure she saw cougars and tigers.

"Viper 1 Klaus those are cougars & tigers approaching on an attack vector I'll hold them off." Laura announced as she broke formation turning towards the climbing fighters.

She dove towards the Cougars and Tigers getting radar lock with one of her Sparrows "Fox three." Laura called launching off a sparrow that hit the lead cougar tearing it apart.

She passed the formation, what she saw sent a chill down her spine "These relics are empty, they're drones."

"You splashed an aircraft without permission to engage what are you thinking Laura." Thunderhead called as one cougar vanished form Thunderhead's radar "Bandits are declared hostile." the three other Vipers ditched their drop tanks but Laura hadn't jettisoned hers.

Viper 1 quickly rolled his viper zero onto the 2nd Cougar's tail which was bringing back memories of his time flying Cougars but he launched an AAM-3 missile that went up the left J48 Turbojet exhaust exploding inside the combustion chamber engulfing the cougar in flames.

Laura scanned her radar and the skies looking for the other two cougars and the four tigers but Laura knew the carrier posed a threat.

She pushed her aircraft into a dive taking aim at one of the sea sparrow launchers firing a burst from her vulcan cannon which set the missile box ablaze, she pulled out of her attack run as Axel and Roger destroyed the cwis guns when the four tigers dove on the F-2s.

The Tigers had started firing on them with their 20mm cannon on Axel and Roger but the more powerful Viper Zero easily outran the older fighters, Axel and Roger took their jets into a half loop and roll over sliding their jets in behind the Tigers.

Viper 2 easily shredded the right wing of the 1st tiger with its 20mm cannon that burst into flames send the tiger down in a spiral while Viper 3 used a sparrow that blew the tail off the 2nd tiger that quickly pitched down into a dive.

Klaus saw the 3rd Cougar trying to make an attack on the osean frigate Dragontail that was coming to cape rainy "Dragontail bogey approaching." the frigate's anti-air weapons opened up with its guns that tore into the Cougar's airframe which crashed into the water.

Laura scanned the sky for the remaining two cougars and tigers but saw A-4H Skyhawk and F-9D Panther fighter-bombers taking off from the carrier heading out to sea but a radio call form Axel broke his careful scan "Viper 4 bandit behind you."

Laura quickly checked over her shoulder seeing the solo Cougar closing in, she knew the Cougar needed to be shot down.

She yanked her stick back chopping open her air brakes pulling the aircraft into a vertical climb as the Cougar streaked by beneath her as she reversed her manoeuvre easily closing the distance to the cougars. Her radar guided gunsight was filled with the Cougar's silhouette, she knew she was too close for a missile shot when the Cougar's turned belly up heading for the carrier but Laura determined to kill the Cougar gave pursuit.

The final cougar flew over the carrier as Laura closed in on the carrier but her HUD displayed to her that the final cougar had wheeled around coming head on but Laura already had a lock with her sparrow. She fired off her 2nd Sparrow destroyed the right wing of the cougar that rolled over crashing on the control tower as the destroyed wing lodged in the sea sparrow launcher.

"Thunderhead splash three cougars" she wondered where the last two tigers had gotten to her eyes scanned the sky looking for the tigers.

Laura watched as Klaus destroyed the two Tigers with his gun "Thunderhead splash two Tigers."

Viper squadron reformed as Axel and Laura checked their six but Laura caught a glint in her corner of her eye about 500 feet above her "bandits inbound."

The AWACS officer onboard their E-767 checked his radar "Confirmed viper 4, I see six F-4E Phantom 2s on heading due west, I expect they are drones too."

Laura saw the phantoms streaked as she got a good look at their armament, the flight of six green with shades of grey and brown with a shark mouth Phantom 2 that had four AIM-7E Sparrows on the belly and the inner pylons had two AIM-9L Sidewinders on a double rack with a drop tank on the outer wing pylon and a tank on the centreline pylon but looked inside the cockpit to see human pilots "Negative they aren't drones" the viper squadron AWACS called on the radio for the phantoms to land and surrender but got no response.

Axel and Roger could hear the missile lock tone shriek in their headsets "Phantoms have us radar locked."Axel punched the throttle breaking formation trying to get beyond the sparrows effective range but two phantoms 'Mirage 4 & 5' rolled inverted pulling rolling half split s to pursue.

"Bandits are hostile" Thunderhead called out. Laura pulled the nose up, rolling the plane inverted diving on the two Phantoms who jettisoned their wing tanks to chase her element lead.

Laura already had the lead Phantom 'Mirage 4' in a radar lock pressing the button on her stick.

A sparrow left her plane's outer wing rail streaking towards the phantoms but mirage 4 and mirage 5 broke formation but Laura worked her radar and more powerful jet to gain lock again firing her final sparrow that struck the right wing of the phantom ripping it to pieces.

Laura caught a glance of the orange triangle with a pentagon and star emblem on the tail, before the phantom struck the water "Thunderhead it's free erusea" Laura called out as mirage 5 attempted to run but Laura's more powerful Super Viper Zero easily caught up. Laura decided to save her missiles and gun this Phantom down.

The Super Viper Zero dropped below the phantom as Laura's gunsight was filled by the phantom but Laura knew where she wanted to fire so she carefully aimed the sight at the right engine and let the bullets fly.

The viper zero's M61A1 roared to life as bullet after bullet pounded the right J79-17A engine that exploded in a burst of fire sending the mirage 5 into a spin with the two pilots ejecting.

Before Viper 4 could catch her breath and call in her 4th and 5th kill of the day. Vulcan cannon fire perpetrated her aircraft, she looked over her shoulder to see two Phantoms 'Mirage 2 & 3' firing 20mm rounds trying to gun her down but unfortunately for the two phantoms the viper flight lead was diving on them readying to fire a Sidewinder which left the left wingtip rail and detonating inside the right engine of the Phantom sending the phantom 'Mirage 3' into an inverted rolling dive.

It struck the water while Mirage 2 and Mirage 6 broke off heading for the flight lead.

Klaus knew that they wouldn't get far and that if they didn't kill them the Eurseans would kill them once they crossed into their airspace.

Klaus looked over Laura's plane seeing smoke coming from the aircraft. "She needs to land asap" he announced Laura's damaged plane that was leaking hydraulic fluid and oil "Laura are you alright?"

"Yeah my plane's trashed but it's replaceable" was all Laura said as she scanned for Cape Rainy.

"Thunderhead splash one Phantom and Laura got five kills." Klaus called as the squadron took the moment of calm which was broken by what the AWACS called in.

"More bogeys inbound" the AWACS called as four green with shades of grey and brown Phantom 2 with four Sparrow missiles on the belly and the inner pylons had two Sidewinders on a double rack with an external tank on the outer wing pylon and an external tank on the centreline pylon.

Laura had a faint lock on the phantoms, she fired off an AAM-3 but it failed to track and streaked by the four fighters.

Laura's heads up display showed the phantoms at 18 miles, she got a lock and fired her last AAM-3 missile that the phantom 2 'Mirage 7' flew into destroying its forward section but her HUD went blank.

"Shit my HUD is out." she could see smoke filling the cockpit, she reached for her oxygen mask.

"Thund...ed, sp...on...ma.. da" her radio cut out.

The three Phantoms broke formation but Roger easily got radar lock onto mirage 10 and let the sparrow fly destroying the rear end on the Phantom but the pilots bailed out.

Axel was tailing one of the two remaining Phantoms 'Mirage 9' firing an AAM-3 that exploded inside the left exhaust which belched black smoke and fire but the phantom limped towards the mountains but crashed into the icy water before it could reach the mountains.

Klaus had already closed in on the final Phantom 'Mirage 8' he decided to put the pilots out of their misery, firing his 20mm cannon that ruptured the right fuel tank that exploded sending the Phantom into the sea.

"AWACS scramble Combat Search and Rescue to pick up survivors form the Phantoms would ya."

Laura's Super Viper Zero was still flyable for the moment but knew if she didn't make it back to base, she have to ditch the plane and bail out and that was something she wants to avoid if she could help it, so Viper 1, 2 and 3 formed up on her wing escorting the limping plane back towards home base but she knew they need to sink the carrier.

"Klaus are we going to sink the carrier or what?" Axel groaned eager to sink the ship that had tried to attack them, but Klaus took a look back seeing an erusean navy Nimrod launching a harpoon anti-ship missiles that tore the midway class ship apart.

Laura saw four panthers and four Skyhawks below her when they disappeared from her sight in the building smoke but her radio was out "Damm it where are they heading," she thought to herself.

It took them five minutes to make it back but Laura knew her plane was almost unflyable since she couldn't get any response form the flight controls "How can this day get any worse." she asked herself.

Two grey cruciform tailed aircraft streaked over the four vipers which looked like someone had taken a Shooting star and put jet engines in place of the external fuel tanks "Oh for fuck's sake me and my big mouth." Laura groaned that luck was not on her side today.

"Thunderhead what is that thing?" Axel called as the mystery aircraft having turned around opened fire with its 20mm cannons hosing down the wounded Super Viper Zero breaching the canopy and damaging the oxygen system but smoke was making it hard to see ahead and her cockpit displays had quit, the gunsight was out and the plane was unflyable, she fired all her remaining ammo into the left mystery plane which erupted in flames rolling over then exploded.

Klaus already had a machine gun radar lock on the mystery aircraft firing his cannon that set the rear rocket engine alight the mystery plane flew on crashing into the cliff opposite runway 34.

Laura knew her plane was too damaged to land. She grabbed her ejection handle which launched her from the plane as she watched the plane land on its belly now engulfed in fire but could see where she was going to touch down right next to her burning fighter.

The moment Laura's feet touched ground she scrambled to get out of her parachute falling on all fours coughing as she tried clearing smoke from her lungs when the air raid siren started sounding as the Skyhawks appeared overhead.

The base anti aircraft anti aircraft guns and flak guns burst to life but what Laura saw next sent a horrifying shudder down her very being as the Skyhawks separated climbing to 4000 feet then broke formation nosing over into a 75 degree nosedive.

The 1st one crashed into the hanger that housed the KC-10A Extender that was stationed at the base which erupted into an inferno, Laura looked behind her to see the 2nd one smash into the sea with a Viper zero flying over, she didn't know if it was one of her sqaudmates.

The 3rd Skyhawk was hit a flak burst and spiralled into a hillside, Laura frantically looked around for the 4th Skyhawk only to see it heading for her and the viper zero, she could hear the roar of its J52-P8A Turbojet as it crept closer and closer, she instinctively draws her 92f firing at the Skyhawk when it rolled inverted crashing into the grass near her.

Fuel from the destroyed Skyhawk spilled onto the ground near the burning Super Viper Zero onto the taxiway, Laura quickly legged it form her plane expecting it to blow up.

Laura knew those panthers were coming in but the sound of four bangs drew her attention to south of the field where she saw four fires on the hillside seeing a viper zero flying away from the crash site, knowing it was more than likely Klaus.

She reached for the air to ground tactical radio she always kept with her."Klaus, if my math is right you shot down ten planes today which bring your kill count to 20 congratulations on becoming a quadruple ace."

Klaus merely smiled at the compliment not feeling the excitement at earning quadruple ace." since most of his kills were drones too easy for him "Laura the plane."

She lowered her radio as an explosion ripped through the left wing of her Super Viper Zero setting it completely ablaze with the blast knocking her back off her feet as firefighters were still fighting the hangar fire.

Laura heard the all clear siren sound picking herself up in shock that she'd survived another morning of the lighthouse war.

She sat their in silence as the firefighters found her but still said nothing desperately wishing her big bro was there to reassure her like he did when they were kids.

In the maintenance hangar

Laura walked into the base hanger seeing her viper zero was charred and blackened beyond recognition "Its a complete write-off isn't it."

Laura just looked at her squadron's lead mechanic who knew the plane was beyond repair remembering all the years she flew the viper zero, she knew the plane was replaceable but the memories were not.

"What was that thing that attacked me?" she wondered as Klaus and Nadine walked into the hanger.

"its a BI-1, a Yuktobanian experimental rocket fighter proposed in the 40s but was cancelled due to the daunting complexity of the technology at the time." Laura and the lead just looked at Klaus with disbelief that she'd been shot down by a 40s relic. Laura just sat on the floor feeling embarrassed she had let an aircraft like that ground her.

"Chin up Serpentina you scored seven kills today compared to viper 2 and 3 who got three kills but naturally and unsurprisingly Klaus got ten kills making him a quadruple ace I think a good note for him to retire on don't you guys think." Nadine noted when a mechanic came in.

"The war is over, Erusea and Osea signed a peace treaty." the mechanic said sounding very happy.

"So Nadine will you contact command to get my discharge since I think retirement is overdue." Klaus calmly said as Laura hugged him.

"Klaus it was a privilege and an honour to serve under you." Laura held Klaus tightly for a minute. Klaus understood that Laura looked up to him.

"Laura you have been one of my best students I have had the honour of serving with."

"Axel, Roger I enjoyed flying with you." she said as hugged both of them who returned the hug.

"Laura why are you talking like the squadron is disbanding." Axel asks his wingwoman who realised that he hadn't been told.

The 104th is being reorganised with Klaus retiring and Serpentina being sent to the LRSSG." Klaus had a hunch that there was more to this than Nadine was telling them. He looked at her, she knew he wanted a word.

They stepped outside "Nadine why are you really sending Laura to the LRSSG." Klaus knew that Laura was being reckless lately he'd seen that today but had a suspicion "You're assigning her to them so she'll have to Trigger the truth."

Nadine sighed to herself "Yes Laura's reckless actions haven't gone unnoticed and I believe she's trying to break out of her brother's shadow."

"So I'll do the forms in a bit." Nadine and Klaus walked back the mess hall with Laura, Axel and Roger in tow.

Back on the Starlifter

"Want to see what the paratroopers are up to in the back?" she asked Nadine who got up from her seat.

Laura and Nadine walked into the cargo hold Nadine still drinking her tea. They could see a group of paratroopers were playing go fish.

"Evening Laura, Nadine so any plans for this evening" a paratrooper asked as she pulled up a chair next to them who handed her a card, they sat down next to the paratroopers.

"Yeah Trigger is going to introduce me to his squadron mates." she explained wondering what the paratroopers were up to seeing them playing go fish.

"Wait you know Three Strikes?" one paratrooper asked Laura who sighed leaning against the boxes.

She pulled three cards from the deck "Yeah he's my brother."

in the cockpit

The four flight crew were discussing for the descent for landing when the Starlifter shuddered under the pulse laser fire that stuck the wing, engine three and four which burst into flames losing power, the right wing began to drop despite the first officer's effort to level the plane.

The flight engineer reduced power to engines three and four while the first officer adding power on the remaining two engines however the airspeed began dropping as the artificial horizon showed the plane was starting to climb while a right roll began.

Down in the cargo hold

Laura felt herself thrown against the left side floor of the cargo bay, she felt to the floor sliding against the cargo door, to her surprise Nadine had slid down next to her "Laura are you okay?"

Nadine reached for two parachutes that the paratroopers had let side down to the pair Laura slipped on the parachute like she had done many times before.

"Yeah I'm fine I think." Laura replied feeling pain in the back of her head but tried to block it out, standing up felt difficult as she felt disorientated as a loose piece in the cargo hold hit the ramp door button.

The rear door opens and air starts rushing out but before Laura could say any word, Nadine pulls the rip cord saying "can't let the sister of three strikes die in a plane crash I owe him one for saving my life." Laura felt the rushing air pressure throw her form the airplane but when Nadine looked again she could see that she had been ejected from the plane.

Up in the cockpit, alarms continues to ring in the cockpit along with the bank angle warning and stick shaker as the pilots struggled to correct the hard bank the captain advanced the throttles on engine three and four which roared but then died.

The Starlifter continued rolling to the right in a twenty degree climb while backing at ever steeper rate, the Starlifter fully nosed over inverted diving for the ground.

The plane dived through 4000 feet, the rear section of the plane broke away from the fuselage.

Laura and Nadine drifted down in their parachutes and could only watch in horror as Starlifter's four turbofan engines separated then followed by left wing sending the transport into flaming spiral dive while the rear portion of the fuselage plummeted like a rock.

The two women continued to drift down towards the ground as the Starlifter smashed into the ground nearby bursting into a fireball but they could see smoke rising from the dockyards in the distance but on touching the ground Laura felt light headed, they looked around with hope that there would be survivors but in their hearts they knew that no one else could have survived.

Laura could see a restaurant nearby knew she could get help but she started to feel disorientated however the light headedness felt like it was getting worse "Nadine please help me." Nadine picked Laura wrapping her arm over her shoulder making their way towards the restaurant.

Meanwhile outside the restaurant

Trigger and Avril eating their pizza when they heard a bang "What was that?"

They could see a column of smoke rising into the sky they didn't even get to leave their seat seeing a red haired woman carrying a black haired 30 year old woman walking in, Trigger dropped the drink dashing over to his sister "Laura little sister you okay talk to me?"

Trigger spoke his big brother mode stepping in not caring if Avril saw him "Head hurts help."

Laura could feel her adrenaline wearing off, Trigger sat her down at a table "Avril Ambulance now."

Avril rushed inside "Someone call an ambulance now."

The barman reached for the phone as she made her way back outside seeing Trigger holding onto Laura tightly. Trigger seeing his sister was losing consciousness "Not the way you wanted the evening to go huh Laura stay with me."

Avril could hear the sound of sirens "Trigger." he looked up as paramedics hurried into the restaurant, after checking over Laura's condition they decided that she need to be taken to the hospital but Trigger didn't want to leave his sister right now but Peter put his hand on his shoulder "Trigger you should go with Laura to the hospital."

Avril and Nadine came back Hux had easily seen that their flight lead was absent "Where's Trigger, Jaeger's about to give us his life story, well Jaeger we're all ears."

Jaeger sipped his drink "I was born in a little town outside Oured, my family were transport pliots who flew globemaster 2s during the cold war my school life was quiet and I knew I wanted to be a pilot like my dad." Jaeger stopped himself taking a sip of his drink.

"So after you graduated what did you do?" Count had wondered since Jaeger had more flight hours than anyone in the LRSSG.

"Well after graduating in 1990 I joined Osean international airways as a navigator on their Yukon fleet, ironically I met my wife Alicia Jaeger working there."

"What was Osean international airways, I've never heard of it."

"It was before your time Scrap Queen, the airline was set up by the osean government after world war 2 being charted for operations in the furtherest parts of osean territory and to places like Belka and Verusa until it got shut down in 1991."

"Why what happened?" none of the others had heard about the scandal.

A Yukon freighter was delivering cargo to the verusean capital when a Yuke air force phantom collided with the Yukon which crashed with the loss of everyone on board, we were shocked to hear that a plane had been lost but we weren't prepared for was that the company was engaging in arms smuggling, the flight was shipping weapons to the Versuans who were engaged in a border war with Yuktobania."

"So you served in the Belkan, Continental and Circum-pacfic war what did you do?"

Jaeger knew that he would be asked that "I joined the Osean air force in 1994 being assigned to the galaxy cargo plane as a navigator airlifting supplies to ground forces during the Belkan war but once the war ended I began flying cargo planes for air Osea cargo when I was assigned to the reserves."

"So how did you and Alicia end up getting together?" Avril couldn't help but ask Jaeger however he could tell she had feelings for Trigger.

"Well Scrap queen it was Alicia who fell for me but I at first didn't notice so she asked me out, I accepted, we went on several dates but the moment we got engaged, we were shipped to aid the ISAF in the 1st continental war so our wedding had to wait till 2010 but we had to postpone our honeymoon thanks to that war between Osea and Yuktobania.

"So how did you end up in Cyclops?" Count wondered since Jaeger was a navigator on freighters and now flew fighters.

"Well in 2012 I requested a transfer to F-15s but even though my request was approved I had to spend 3 years to get qualified when Alicia told she was pregnant with our son Eric who she had 3 years ago."

"Trigger went with Laura to the hospital, what happened?" Jack asks Avril but Nadine was still trying to process what happened.

"Our transport was attacked and the flight crew lost control taking evasive action." Nadine explained as best could but Jack had noticed her.

"So Count since everyone here has given their history its your turn." Huxian said with a hint of smugness in her voice.

Well I was born on the outskirts of the capital of verusa, my dad was absent for most of my life since he was a mercenary for hire with the Versuan Liberation Army Air Force in a conflict with Romny and Valga, my mom hated him for that but when I was 8 a Fishcan of the VLAAF crashed into our house killing the pilot and the crash badly injured my mom."

"Who was the pilot?" Hux wondered since she couldn't understand why a pilot would make the rookie blunder of crashing into a house.

"Turns out the pilot was my dad who had tried to kill my mum with his jet since she had filed for a divorce and he was going to lose full custody of me."

everyone at the table stopped

"So what happened after this incident?" Jaeger asked wondering what Count did after this.

"At the start of the millennium I ended up a gang after my mum passed away in hospital, they raised me until I left them in 2011 when I moved to a town near Hierelark air base when I met scream and rage during my flight training, after we graduated in 2014 I was assigned to the Mimic squadron which was the only three man squadron. We flew the original Flanker-Bs for four years when they transferred to the berkuts and I flew the sea flanker."

"Wait they aren't the same Rage and Scream who tried to kill Trigger and his sister aren't they probably still out there somewhere cause they disappeared after the final battle we had?" Jaeger asks sounding very concerned since they wanted trigger dead for reasons that he still can't understand "then his sister got involved trying to protect him and they tag teamed Scream." The 3 other LRSSG remembered the moves that Trigger and Laura pulled on Scream.

"and now they want them both dead." Count spoke the concern rippled among the strider squad that they have a serious problem on their hands."

"So Count, how did you become a fraudster?" Blaze wondered since he had heard about this in the papers.

"Well Rage and Scream taught me how to defraud people and it worked until I was impersonating the prince of Osea but Rage and Scream sold me out for reasons I still don't know which landed me in Zapland for fraud." he replied but something didn't make sense to Nagase.

"Wait if you were convicted of fraud so why were you sent to a penal fighter squadron instead of a regular prison?" she asked count since she hadn't heard of a penal squadron.

"Basically Nagase think of a squadron that you would send on a mission and you don't care if the pilots die since they are expendable, that's what a penal squadron is and it would save taxpayer money since there would be a high chance the prisoner would die on sortie." he explained as Huxian and Avril let out a shallow yawn which Jack immediately picked up on.

"So I'll take Nadine to the hospital while Count, Knocker, Clown and Jaeger probably can crash at a hotel but what about you and Nagase kid? Jack asks his old student who knew that Blaze and Nagase were going to catch up with each other.

"Cynthia, Avril you guys can crash at my apartment for tonight and tomorrow we'll check on Trigger who probably won't leave his sister's side."

The group got up from their seat depart, but Blaze and Kei could see two people she recognised "So Captain how'd meeting the three strikes go?"Hans asked his former flight lead who sat down at the table.

"Well he's an excellent pilot and honestly someone I may want to fight along side if the Razgriz have fly the skies again which given what Belka has been doing lately, I have a feeling that the Razgriz may be needed again."

"Well Harling knew that the Razgriz might be needed again, so he granted the government the option to recall us if we were required but I'll need a new Super Tomcat."

"Why?" Marcus inquired since he hadn't heard that the wyvern had been retired. Blaze remembered why the jet was retired.

"Well Marcus the ODF in 2012retired the original Tomcat due to age and Wyvern due to its stealth features being overcome by advancing anti-stealth measures and the design was more prone to structural issues in its wing and I should know since I was the pilot who operated the last flight."

"I believe a modern version of the Wyvern exists so the OADF may have to order some new X-02S Strike Wyvern or I heard Grunder is offering to upgrade the earlier Wyverns to a standard on the same level as the Strike Wyvern."

"Where is Trigger?, I wanted to meet him." Marcus asked, but Nagase leans onto Blaze, who looked at his former wingmen.

"He had to go to the hospital with a family member, but Marcus will your salvage company be salvaging the wreck of the arsenal bird and that super submarine that was seen during this war?" Marcus shook his head.

Grimm could read on the faces of his two former squad mates that they had a memorable night ahead of them. "So I assume a pleasant night for you and Kei I imagine captain." Kei scowled at Grimm comment on her and blazes romance.

The four Razgriz pilots made their way to the hotel that Blaze was staying in.

Selatapura  
December 2nd 2019  
07:30 am

Gargoyle squadron was cruising at 7000 feet coming to the end of their combat air patrol flight with the sun rising to the west when gargoyle three spotted glints above them recognising the aircraft from an air show "Gargoyle one I see Skyray fighters above us."

The seven officers looked up to see a flight of four silver with dark green camouflage F-6A Skyray that had two 2500ib external fuel tanks on the inner wing hardpoints with an AIM-9B Sidewinder on the middle wing and outer wing hardpoint.

The Skyrays began to close in on an unsuspecting Citation private jet but the Super Tomcats already had the Skyrays in a radar lock.

"Gargoyle 1 to all units targets are in firing range, release your missiles." the four Super Tomcats fired a volley of sidewinder missiles which easily demolished the skyray fighters.

"Sky keeper all targets destroyed returning to base." the F-14s turned towards the carrier.

Selatapura general hospital  
07:55 am

Avril, Rosa & Cynthia walked into the hospital each nursing a hangover "I came to see Sophie Schnelle & Jennifer drake what room are they in?"

"I'm wondering where a miss Laura Hansen is since I'm a close friend of her brother." The nurse gave them directions to the rooms.

Rosa and Avril walked into see Laura resting in the bed with Trigger sleeping in the chair next to her "He cares about her a lot doesn't he."

she walked over to Trigger "Hey dumbass wake up."Trigger groggily raised his head as Rosa handed him a coffee.

"Thanks Rosa." he said drinking the coffee.

"So how's your sister?" Avril said wondering how Trigger's sister was doing.

"She's doing fine, she just banged her head." he said sitting down in the chair. Laura woke up looking around to see Trigger and the lady from the restaurant.

"So Scott, who is lady with you?" she looked at Avril who felt Laura was eyeing her suspicion.

"Laura meet Avril mead my girlfriend." he said as Avril blushed slightly that didn't escape Rosa's notice.

"Avril say hello to Laura Hansen my sister." he said as Avril walked over to the bed nervously offering a hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Avril." she said, but Avril knew she was suspicious of her.

"What's this whole three strikes all about?" she asked Trigger who looked nervously at Avril and Rosa who could do nothing to help him.

"It's just a nickname Laura." he replied not wanting to explain how he got it yet when a nurse came in "When will my sister be released?"

"Well your sister has a minor concussion, so she should be able to be released in two hours." the nurse looked at Avril "a woman want to see you and your friend outside." Avril knew there could only be one person that wanted to see her.

In the room next door

Cynthia could see a brunette haired 32 year old woman who had blue eyes and a blonde haired 33 year old woman who had green eyes laying in each other's arms "So you two finally got together."

"Yeah we did so Cynthia how are you doing these days?" Sophie asks her childhood friend.

"I'm doing well although currently grounded due to an enquiry into a shoot-down I was involved in." she explained what had happened.

"So grounded for good." Hux said noticing the casts. The three got down to chatting.

Outside the hospital

Avril and Trigger were walking out of the hospital when Avril saw 5 foot nine woman standing by the car "Trigger allow me to introduce my mom Alexis mead."

"Alexis its a pleasure to meet you, your daughter is very good mechanic." he nervously said having not prepared for meeting Avril's mom so soon.

"Avril, who is this man with you?" she asked wondering who she was talking to.

"Mom may I introduce my boyfriend Trigger." she said sounding just as nervous as Trigger felt like Alexis was looking down at him.

"Seems nice where are you from Trigger?" she asked him wanting to get to know the guy her daughter was dating better as they walked over to a blue veyron sport. Avril was surprised that trigger owned such an expensive car.

"I come form little village outside Solius Ortis in Ustio ma'am." he said unlocking the door to the car.

"How did you meet?" she wondered since Avril had mentioned she had met someone."

"We met in prison." he said opening the door for Avril who climbed inside feeling comfortable in the seat.

"You remember that starfighter that me and gramps were building?" she asks as Alexis felt her frustration that Avril had gone and ignored her.

"Avril I warned you against taking that drag racer up without a radio or iff system so what happened." she said facepalming as she wanted to give Avril a dressing down.

"Got shot down and suffered a leg injury then got arrested." she weakly said as Trigger the drivers door.

"Well once your daughter has her operation to fix her leg and is trained on her new jet, it will have a working iff and radio."

"Well Trigger I hope you keep my daughter safe and try to keep her out of trouble I worry about sometimes."

"I know I worried about her after we were transferred to the lrssg and she went to Tyler island." Trigger stepped into the car.

Trigger and Avril drove from the hospital to Selatapura air base.

Selatapura regional airport  
Erusea  
16:30 am

Blaze & Nagase and Avril walked out onto the tarmac where they saw a row of C-28 titan light aircraft but what certainly caught their eye was a two seater starfighter that had a light stripe running up to the t-tail "So after your surgery and physiotherapy, you'll train on this starfighter trainer jet to get certified."

The roar of a helicopter caught their attention as a SH-9B helicopter arrived "Blaze is that a Sea Goblin helicopter carrying Anti-Submarine Radar" Kei asked as the helicopter powered down.

"Not exactly when the older HH-9Bs were replaced by newer HH-9Bs and HH-11A as the carrier sar helicopters they were converted into MH-9B, SH-9B so instead of being scrapped they could serve a new role" Blaze explained to his former Razgriz when the loud roar of a jet captured their attention, looking up to where the noise was they saw the Warwolf prototype lowered its gear and flaps but the nose started to pitch up.

The three pilots could tell something was amiss, the Warwolf prototype dropped like a rock towards the ground, despite the pilot's application of max power on its Marte Type 17A engines but the Warwolf continued nosing up until it was forty degrees nose up when the pilot ejected then seconds later the aircraft smashes into the ground erupting into flames.

The fire crews responded immediately while the two test pilots landed safely but they could all hear a roaring overhead.

Blaze looked up to see four white wild weasel aircraft with a yellow triangle emblem on the tail streaked by "They don't look like erusean air force aircraft they're belkan air force jets," he said.

Trigger and Jaeger who were on a cap patrol for the morning flew by the space elevator when four blips appeared on Trigger's radar, his eyes surveyed the sky only to see a flight of four Su-24MP fencer-Fs heading their way but the pilots of the fencer ignored the calls form Long Caster.

The eagles turned to pursue the fencers which easily could keep up with the Fencer-Fs which were heading out to sea at low level however Trigger's eyes saw a Viper Zero approaching.

He recognised who the pilot was instantly, "Laura I thought you were supposed to be resting after the crash yesterday?"

Laura spotted a white Mirage 3E that had a triangle emblem with a Sidewinder on the outer delta wing hardpoint ahead of her diving on an Eursean air force Jayhawk multi engined trainer jet so broke off her pursuit to engage the mirage.

"No time big bro" she locked the jet up with an AAM-3 "Fox 2" she called firing her 1st AAM-3 missile shot that exploded up near the mirage who pulled up away form the Jayhawk trainer which immediately bolted.

Laura's viper zero climbed after the mirage was in afterburner just what Laura wanted so she locked her 2nd AAM-3 this time the missile went up the exhaust exploding inside the Atar 9C Turbojet ripping the mirage to pieces which crashed into the sea "Splash one mirage" she spoke as she joined the eagles to pursue the fencers.

Several hundred miles away

a large aircraft carrier was parked out off the erusean coast line, the massive had a large v shaped lower hull that was a mile long and 1.5 miles wide with a large rectangle shaped midsection that had open gaps at each end while the other side had no gaps for the area that housed the manned stealth fighters and manned jammer aircraft.

The top deck had two long runways going north and south that each end were a pair of lift elevators while across the deck were four rows of super hornet fighters and a dolphin search and rescue helicopter while on the under side of the deck where a mile row of twenty milometer cwis, forty milometer twin bofor AA weapons.

At the back of the ship was a large solar farm that feeds the generator that power the super carrier but in-between that and the flightdeck were four rows of burst and Hi-tasm missile silos with the control tower and on the left side of the deck that gave a view of the entire flight deck. and along the sides were vls containing rim-162 surface to air missiles.

On the bridge

Admiral Roland Liesl was looking out towards the space elevator with Captain Hans Humphrey of the Bfs Belka. "Well captain this is a fine ship but one of the radar officers spotted eight unknown contacts on her radar.

"Captain I have eight contacts, seven of them are closing fast," she reported to the captain who wanted to know what was approaching before he made a decision to fire.

"Type of Aircraft?" he asked the radar officer who looked at her computer screen.

"a Belkan navy C-2A Greyhound cargo plane, four Fencer-F wild weasel aircraft and Osean Air Defence force Viper Zero & two Eagle fighter jets,"

"Tell the Greyhound to break off its approach and hold position outside the carrier" Hans picked up a mic "to all unknown and Osean aircraft approaching the carrier please steer clear or you will be fired on."

"This is Strider 1 of the Osean Long Range Strategic Strike Group to whom am I speaking" Trigger asked wanting to find out what he was pursuing the Fencer-F towards.

"Captain Hans Humphrey of the Belka federation aircraft carrier Belka," he announced over his radio waiting for Trigger's response.

"So Captain Hans Humphrey me and strider three are on cap flight near Selatapura when we detected fencer f aircraft and gave pursuit along with serpentina we'll stay clear of your ship sir but be advised we have had shoot downs yesterday in this area so I'd advise not sending transports out unprotected."

"Roger strider 1 we'll implement that right away" he spoke when missile warning alarm blared as the fencer f's fired off a volley of kilter missiles but the cwis guns easily decimated them "Good hunting captain" Trigger spoke as he, Laura and Jaeger broke off their chase of the fencer.

The four fencer f ditched their drop tanks and prepared to fire their 2nd kilter missiles when the port side guns opened up sending Verona 2, 3 and 4 down in mere seconds but the pilots bailed out.

Verona 1 managed to escape the anti-air fire but had lost one of his two AL-21F-3A Turbojets in the process but the aircraft managed to turn around heading straight for the carrier in an attempt to ram the ship however all the CWIS gun on the starboard side were already locked on, the damaged Su-24 broke off trying to make it to Tyler island but Laura was already in range with the Sparrow, she fired one which easily caught up to fencer obliterating it from the sky.

"Splash one bandit just one away from the double ace" She spoke but what trigger said next brought her down a peg as she flew along side the carrier beyond its weapons range.

"Laura, I became a triple ace on my second mission with mage squadron" Trigger spoke enjoying the moment as Laura realised that Trigger had her beat on kills by a long shot.

"Goddammit Scott why can't you allow me to enjoy the moment" Laura groaned as they watched the C-2A greyhound emerge from the clouds beginning to turn for its final approach.

The sound of two T56 turboprops shattered the silence on the flight deck as the greyhound now configured for landing flew into view of the officers on the bridge continuing its final turn towards the carrier runway but both the deck and bridge crew could see something was awry, the greyhound was banking sharply to line up with the runway "They're not going to make it no way."the deck crew watched as the greyhound rolled to 90 degrees turn over the ocean opening rapidly losing height striking the ocean and disintegrating "Crash scramble SAR immediately" the Admiral called as a dolphin and HH-9B helicopter took off to search for survivors from the greyhound and the Fencer.

"Strider 1 calling do you require any assistance, we saw a greyhound crash into the sea" Trigger spoke as he and strider 3 flew by the carrier seeing all the cannons now trained on them but they stood down.

"Affirmative sir if you could dispatch a helicopter with divers we'd appreciate it our ship is on a trial voyage and is unequipped for underwater recovery yet" Hans spoke as the eagles and Viper zero turned back towards Selatapura while Trigger gave Long Caster the request.

Eric surveyed the sky for any other aircraft but he saw six silvery-white Mirage 4P that had large fuel tanks on the inner delta wing with a 2000ib mark 84 general purpose bombs on the outer wing hardpoints while the belly had a rack of six 1000ib mark 83 general purpose bombs.

Laura formed up with Trigger and Jaeger behind the formation that had moved ahead of the fighters. "Trigger how about we use your 120s to knock the formation out of the sky but the Mirages dropped their external tanks descending to 500 feet with the Eagles and Viper Zero dropping in behind.

Trigger had a better idea however "Laura can you launch a Sparrow at the lead Mirage so its destruction will scatter the flight," he asked as she had at present gotten into a lock with her Sparrow.

"Laura do it," he said to his sister who fired a Hyper Velocity Sparrow that streaked towards the formation obliterating the lead Mirage 4P's number 3 & four Atar 9K-50 Turbojets that sent the Mirage crashing into the sea.

The other five Mirage scattered jettisoning their bombs and external fuel tanks and bugging out at supersonic speed but four simultaneous bursts of missile flashes could be seen in the distance as four of the five Mirage broke up in flames with the 5th limping towards the desert.

Trigger knew it wouldn't get far in its damaged state so he, Frederick and Laura headed for home but a fire on the grounds of a golf course was enough to say all bandits were down with the remaining Mirage 4P burning brightly in the faint evening light.

"So Laura how does it feel to be a triple ace?" Trigger asked Laura who was busy happily stroking her own ego to hear Trigger's question.

"It feels awesome I can't wait to tell the others but don't you have a date tonight." she said when four super tomcat came along side the flight.

"Trigger, this is Gargoyle 1 we'll relieve you." Gargoyle 1 spoke as Trigger, Jaeger and Laura banked away heading for their temporary base.

A/n

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter although I had planned to do more but scenes weren't ready and to give myself more time to write the Trigger and Avril date is now going to be in chapter 5 now dlc mission number 1 has released and it was a lot of fun and I'm currently in the early planning stages of a short story that covers the dlc missions but I'll give more info when I'm ready to do so

now some information on new helicopters that will be featuring in my ace combat fics, the HH-11A is the fictional designation for the Airbus HH-65C Dolphin SAR helicopter since the HH-9B has been used as the carrier SAR helicopter for so long that a replacement was more than likely to have happened by skies unknown, the CH-10A cougar and CH-10B Caracal are the fictional designations for the AS532UB Cougar and the 10B is the EC725 Caracal transport helicopters, the MH-11A & AH-11A Panther are the designations for the Harbin Z-9B Huitan and the Agusta A-129 Mangusta attack helicopter and the SH-9B & MH-9B are the designations for the MH-60L black hawk and SH-60F Oceanhawk


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft or cars mentioned

December 2nd, 2019  
Selatapura  
19:00 pm

Trigger was waiting outside in a tuxedo for Avril.

"Alright, dumbass. Ready to go?"He turned around to see the Scrap Queen looking like a real Queen; her brown hair was not too messy for once, and had a bobby pin in them. Her toned frame was covered in an orange open back dress and it complimented her chest size nicely.

As she walked closer to him, he noticed she had black eye shadow and glossy lipstick as well.

Trigger was speechless for a few seconds as he took the view in before grinning. "Looking like a real Queen there, Scrap Queen."

Avril huffed as her face turned slightly red. "Shut up, dumbass."

The pair stepped into the restaurant walking over to where they waited when a waiter came over "You have a reservation?"

"Yeah 7 pm." Trigger calmly said whereafter the waiter quickly checked the system seeing their names.

They were escorted by a waiter to a window table.

"So what shall we have?" she, asked Trigger who looked through the menu knowing they didn't want starter or dessert.

"I'll have what you have." he said as Avril out down her menu when the waiter came back.

"So what will you have sir?" the waiter asked Trigger.

"Spaghetti and meatballs and a glass of wine please." Trigger politely told the waiter as Avril sat patiently eager to talk to trigger.

"So Trigger got any favourite movies?" Avril asked wondering what movies Avril liked so when they went out to a cinema.

"Well, I'd say the tomb raider films from the early 2000s were my favourites." Trigger knew those movies well since he'd lost count how many times he'd watched them.

"I never got to watch many movies during my youth." Avril said quietly, Trigger could see there was something that the Scrap Queen didn't want to say and he figured it would be best to wait till Avril was ready to tell him.

"Avie do you have a favourite childhood memory?" Trigger asked wondering what moments were precious to the mechanic.

"Well I'd say it was seeing my granddad flying his starfighter at the November city air show, what about you Scotty." she shot back giving a slight grin.

Trigger rolled his eyes at the awful nickname "Scotty really?"

"Yeah you called me Avie, so I'll call you Scotty when we're alone like right now. So what was yours?" Avril

"Well now my best childhood memory was me and my sister Laura's first bike ride." he, said remembering the bike rides he and Laura took on the fields near their house.

"So what was the worst mission you've been on during your fighter pilot career so far?" Avril asked having listened to trigger tell her what had happened while she had been on tyler island.

"Operation sighthound, I've never been on a more disastrous mission in my career other than operations dual wielder and lighthouse keeper." Avril could hear the frustration in trigger's voice that was clear to her that he hated that mission.

"Why was it worst?" she, asked him curious to know why that one was the worst since she thought the worst had to be that disaster of an op on Tyler island.

"Operation sighthound was a sloppily planned mission by the osean military I mean sending the navy landing fleet and electronic warfare aircraft without air superiority then changing a vital mission time without telling before my flight arrived at the port."

"Won't there be an inquiry into that op since I had read that the oseans lost all the ships sent." Avril inquired knowing that Trigger probably couldn't say anymore on what went down.

Trigger was going to ask how she knew but she expected that question "I read it in the osean air force times." Trigger knew that the communication systems had been damaged during the fighting so satellite communication was limited.

"What kept the world relatively sane up to that point had been free flowing data and information." Trigger quietly mused but not quietly enough as Avril heard every word.

"You've had a conversation with Dr. Schroeder as well." Trigger picked up that Avril like him had a chat with the easa scientist.

"Yeah he felt very bad and told me he wants to atone for what he's done and I think he deserves a 2nd chance despite what he did during the war." Trigger was quiet as he thought about what Belka cost him but Schroeder was just a person doing a job like him.

"So the Sighthound inquiry?" Avril said between sips of her drink.

"I've been asked to testify at the inquiry next month with the rest of Strider cause Wiseman is no longer with us." he said bluntly as the waiter returned with their food.

"Has anyone said when the gps systems will be restored?" Avril wondered since the gps was vital for flight in the 21st century and she was going to need it for flying at air shows in future.

"I would imagine Osea and Yuketobania are going to be launching satellites to try and restore the communication and navigation systems throughout the next few years."

"So how about we tuck in before the food gets cold." Trigger stated as he poured them both a glass of wine.

The pair tucked into their meals.

4 miles outside Selatapura  
20:30

Trigger parked up his veyron as Avril looked around "Okay we are here" Trigger spoke getting out opening the door for Avril wasn't a royal officially he just did it to be a gentleman.

They walked for 10 minutes when they saw a 100 foot high rockface that has been carved into a heart shaped that had green and light green moss covers a quarter of the rocks on both sides, the raging water splashes down into a light blue deep cavern and wide lagoon.

The ground around the lagoon had soft green grass but behind the waterfall was a cave that would provide shelter in a storm.

Their attention was drawn to the multicoloured fireflies that had started performing a light show. "Beautiful isn't it?" Trigger said as he and Avril sat down on the grass.

"So what could we do on an evening like this?" she wondered, Trigger had an idea.

"We could go skinny dipping but Avril if you want to change without me seeing then you can use the cave to change I promise, I won't peek but if you don't want to do that then we won't" Trigger spoke in a calming voice that was reassuring to Avril who stepped into the cave for a few minutes.

Trigger pulled off his shirt flinging it onto the ground then he swiftly ditched his trousers and underwear which joined his shirt on the floor but he was about to dive in when Avril stepped out from the cave, she had a medium sized athletic figure. He did look hot, and she wanted a night with him.

She walked over to Trigger who waited for her, they dived into the lagoon letting the water rush by them. They swan to the bottom of the lagoon. They surfaced in each other's arms staring into each other's eyes.

Avril carefully swam over to Trigger who was already seated on an underwater bench.

"Trigger I need you now." She said with a massive amount of arousal in her voice as she stared into Trigger.

The pair's heads moved towards each other, their lips touched briefly, they captured each other's lips in a passion filled searing kiss, Avril's arm wrapped itself around his shoulders. Trigger positioned himself in front of her carefully spreading her legs "Watch my leg."

an hour later

They laid in the moment as the afterglow of the orgasm washed over their beings, they had never felt anything like this in their lives.

"Oh my god Trigger that was amazing, I think you fucked my brains out, I won't need sex for a while, I think you broke my pussy."

She looked at Trigger who had fallen asleep below her, she felt her fatigue hit her like a freight train, her eyes felt so heavy that she quickly drift off into a dream filled sleep with her arms wrapped tightly around Trigger who had pulled the sleeping bag over them but felt Trigger's cock slip out as sperm leaked out on the sleeping bag.

The pair slept for two hours but Trigger woke up "Scrap Queen better wake up so we can catch our flight."

The pair gathered their clothes getting dressed making their way to the car and climbing inside.

December 3rd, 2019  
Selatapura air base  
12:00 am

Trigger and Avril walked out to the air superiority grey foxhound "Why do we have to wear this?" she groaned not liking the g-suit which in her mind looked ridiculous.

Trigger understood that complaint "Well normal flight suits wouldn't protect us at the height this jet can go."he softly said having had the same lecture form his flight instructor when he had his first flight in the foxhound.

Trigger slowly helped Avril climb into the rear seat of the foxhound helping her get secure "so ready to see the sky?" he asked getting into the pilot's seat as the canopy came down and locked.

Trigger's hand flipped the starter as the turbofans roared to life, the foxhound taxied to the runway 20. "Strider 1 at runway two-zero requesting clearance for take-off."

The tower controller came over the radio "Strider 1 clear to go enjoy your flight."

Trigger advanced the throttles to max power, the foxhound's burner lit up pushing the foxhound down the runway, Trigger pulled the jet into a steep climb.

The foxhound soared through the night sky climbing rapidly as Trigger began to arrest his climb. The foxhound levels off at 80,000 feet, Trigger raised his visor keeping a careful watch on the speed.

Avril on the other hand stared out of the window seeing the horizon curve, she noticed a blue mist but above "Scrap Queen what is like?"

She raised her visor and stared into the dark blue sky the same one she saw her dreams every night as a little girl.

"The dark blue sky is so beautiful I can almost touch it, it's just like my dreams." Avril passionately said.

She stared almost mesmerised by the colour of the sky fixating on to an extant that she zoned out to Trigger who knew they couldn't maintain this height much longer when the rattling of the stick shaker broke Avril from the trance like state she was in.

Trigger pushed the stick forward adding power dropping the aircraft to 70,000 feet "Is this what its like to see the sky from this high?" she wondered. She could see some of the stars shining.

"Yeah no matter how many times I see it, it never looks the same as I saw the first time." he said as he picked up a fluid bottle attaching it to his helmet.

A green aurora came over the foxhound "Is that the aurora borealis?" Avril asked in amazement as she had never seen this phenomenon before.

"Yeah it is I've only seen it once but its on my bucket list to see both the aurora borealis and the aurora australis." Trigger calmly said as the jet continued its path.

"I can keep us at this height for a bit so enjoy the view while you can." Trigger said raising his visor to look at the aurora that he hadn't seen in years.

Avril gazed out looking at the curvature of the earth and the dark blue of the stratosphere. She was instantly transfixed by the aurora, the green glow shone like a bright sunlight that had been transformed into a river of mystical colour that looked like a rift had opened up in the sky.

The green rippling lights moved liked waves in an ocean of stars, Avril silently watched as the waves of light reflected off the skin of the interceptor filling the cockpits with a faint green glow.

The green light looked like a haze of colour that faintly obscured the bright stars as the aurora moved across the sky.

"You know Trigger, Dr Schroeder told me that flying at high altitude for a long time would ravage a person's body, he thinks its mostly due to the radiation that bombard the stratosphere at high altitudes." Avril lightly said as the foxhound banked into a right turn.

"I've been flying at high altitude for years and am fine." he retorted, Avril could hear what made Trigger a dumbass in his voice.

"I believe it takes decades of high altitude flying before it starts to do serious damage to your body." Avril told him as she drinks some juice from her fluid bottle.

Trigger looked at the green glow around the jet which reminded him of the glow from the barrier drones that exploded above him during operation fisherman.

"I hate cutting the enjoyment short, but we'll be turning back soon so snap a photo if you can." Trigger spoke with sadness that they had to turn around and head back.

Avril quickly picked up the camera to take her photo as Trigger turned the jet around.

"Got it maybe I should have a copy and one for a magazine." Avril chuckled to herself as the Aurora faded from view.

"Long caster you heard everything didn't you?" Trigger called noticing the radio was on. He quickly realised they'd been transmitting their conversation on the osean frequency.

"Yeah I did enjoying the flight?" he asked as he tracked the foxhound.

"Yeah we are so Long caster where will the lrssg be based?" Trigger asked wanting to know where they will be.

"Well the iun haven't told me yet but they want cyclops to stay in Selatapura for air policing until the local erusean forces are able to handle things on their own but the squadrons will be rotated around when I don't know btw Scrap Queen we've made arrangements so you can have a hangar all to yourself." Long Caster explained as Avril tried to contain her joy at getting her own private workshop.

"Thank you, but I think we'll be landing soon so I wish you a good night Long Caster." Avril said signing off as Trigger calmly guided the foxhound back to the tanker. It was only an hour later when it touches back down at Vincent Harling International Airport.

Trigger deployed the brake chutes slowing the foxhound. The interceptor came to a stop and he shut the jet down.

He pulled off his helmet placing it on his lap as the canopy released "So Avril did you enjoy that?" he pulled himself out of the cockpit as Avril pulled her helmet off, she caught her breath.

Trigger walked up the steps offering his hand. She took it letting him pull her from the rear cockpit. "I loved it thank you Trigger for taking me up, you are so right about seeing the sky from the height you told me about." she said as she stared at Trigger who wrapped her into a hug against the foxhound.

"I only want to see from that high." Avril softly said as Trigger held her tightly.

"You are such a dumbass but my dumbass." Trigger felt happiness swelling within him since despite the shit he'd been through, he'd found happiness and someone he'd happily spend the rest of his life with.

The ground crew hooked up the foxhound.

"Yeah I love you Trigger." she softly said as she leaned into him.

"And I love you too Scrap Queen." he responded and pulled her into a searing passionate kiss which lasted what seemed like forever until they broke for oxygen.

Trigger yawned as he felt very tired, Avril felt tired herself. "Sleepy are we dumbass?"

He just nodded eager to get out the suits and into a warm bed,"I think I'll drive us over to Rosa's place okay." Trigger nodded knowing that was a good idea. They stepped into a base car which drove them back to the main building.

At Rosa's apartment

They stepped into Rosa's apartment seeing the lights were off but could hear the sounds of moaning and what looked like clothes scattered around the room "Oh Rosa you're so tight" Trigger recognised the voice as he looked at Avril.

"I think Rosa and my sister may have had a bender in celebrating us getting together and are now having sex." Trigger spoke quietly as he and Avril made their way to the guest room.

"Want to see if we can be louder than them?" Avril whispered but Trigger just kissed her as they stepped inside closing the door behind them.

All that was heard for the rest of the night was the sound of moaning and panting.

December 3rd, 2019  
Rosa's apartment  
Selatapura  
06:30 am

it was quiet in the apartment when the buzzing of a phone woke Laura up who climbed out of bed to answer it.

She reached in her brother's jacket pocket "hello Trigger's phone he's still asleep at the moment but I can take a message and pass it on when he gets up." she said then listened to what the person on the other end was saying "Okay thank you bye." she hung up the call as Rosa came out in a nightie.

"Morning so who was it?" she asked as Laura put the phone back in the jacket as she pulled a dressing gown round herself.

"It was Long Caster, Trigger's squadron has been assigned to somewhere and he got a reward for his venerable service with the air force but let's let our beacon of light and his one sleep they must have been very tired after their night of passion." she told her as they went to the kitchen for breakfast.

An hour later

Avril awoke form her slumber rolling onto her side "Morning dumbass."

Trigger awoke only to feel two arms around him so he looked to see Avril on his left "she's still beautiful" he thought to himself since he'd slept with their chief mechanic.

Trigger pulled himself out of her grip but Avril remembering their night of passion pulled him back into her. "Trigger where did you learn how to satisfy a woman like you did last night?"

"What can I say, I know how to please a woman? he said but she hit him on the head with a pillow.

"Okay okay I get it that was corney." he said lightly as Avril caught him in a kiss. She pushed him down onto the bed as her good leg wrapped around his legs.

Her hips pressed against his as Trigger could feel himself getting turned on but resisted the urge to press himself into her.

Avril wondered if they were going to get in trouble for sleeping together "Does the OADF have anything against fraternisation in the squadron?"

Trigger leaned back in the bed "Its not the military I'm more worried about, its my sister since she'll tease me relentlessly when she figures out that I got laid last night and with my chief mechanic too."

"Avril if you want after you have the surgery today would you like me to help you with the physiotherapy to regain full mobility in your right leg." Trigger said to her who rolled on top of him.

"I'd like that but wanna stay in bed a bit longer?" he said smiling as Avril adjusted herself eager to fuck her boyfriend again. Their heads moved to kiss each other again unfortunately the sound of two rumbling stomachs ruined those plans "Damm it I wanted a quickie." they both said groaning as they knew the morning make out session they both desired had been ruined. "Breakfast" Avril nodded rolling onto her back while Trigger pulled himself out of bed slowly stretching as he walked over to the wardrobe.

Trigger handed her a white dressing gown as he pulled a blue one round himself.

The pair stepped into the apartment living room where Laura and Rosa was making breakfast when Eagle walked over to Avril "Hiya girl."

The osean malamute wandered over to Avril carefully sniffing her "Trigger what is this dog doing?" she waited unsure what to do as the dog stood up on her hind legs sniffing her face.

"Eagle's just trying to pick up your scent to see if she likes you, she takes a liking people very quickly if she thinks you are a friend."

Avril bent down slightly as Eagle licked her cheek "Well I'd say she likes you Avie." Trigger as Eagle ran over to him and he stroked her fur.

"So what breed is she?" Rosa asked him as she had been a dog owner herself and was more curious about what dog that trigger's family had a pet.

"She's an osean malamute actually." Trigger said as Rosa handed him dogfood, he carefully scooped it into a bowl for eagle.

"You know dumbass, I think I like Eagle more than I like you." Avril said chuckling lightly as she stroked Eagle's fur.

Laura and Rosa had already taken a seat at the table "Hey Rosa thanks for letting me crash here for the night" she had seen the hickies on the 2 and silver love bites on Trigger's face which to her screamed they'd had raw, lust filled passionate sex.

Laura flashed a grin much to Trigger and Avril's embarrassment as he shut the door behind them. "So Scott why do you look like you had a good time no way you didn't?"

"Yeah you got us sis, we slept together." Trigger sheepishly said as Avril lightly thumped his shoulder.

"Trigger was a kind gentleman and very good." Avril said knowing hiding it was pointless.

"You fall at the feet of women bro" Laura said much to Trigger's embarrassment as they sat down at the table.

"So Avril you have the operation today." Rosa switched on the tv as the Enn morning news was playing.

"Yeah but we heard you both last night." Avril said as Rosa and Laura looked at each other quickly realised they had been busted.

"You slept with crown princess Rosa, sis I didn't think you'd be so bold." Trigger replied feeling a little smug as Rosa blushed bright red with Laura looking at Trigger who was enjoying teasing his sister.

"Trigger you'll keep this secret right?" Rosa asked pleading with Trigger but knew it was only fair since Rosa had set up their date.

"Of course what you do in the bedroom is your business while what we did at the lagoon is our business." Trigger calmly looking at the two women who clearly enjoyed themselves last night.

"So Scott I'll be with your squadron." Trigger felt there was something he was missing so made a mental note to call Nadine later to get more information.

"Where is the lrssg based?" Rosa asked as she thought how to break the bad news. Avril and Laura looked at her both recognising she had some news that didn't sound good.

"We're based at new arrows air base why?" he replied wondering why Rosa was asking where his squadron were based.

"Well two nights ago new arrows was attacked by free erusean forces doing severe damage to the base and there have been an unknown number of casualties according to what I've been told." she said as Trigger stopped as the information of his home being attacked by terrorists sunk in.

"So any clue as to how long it will take to repair the base?" Trigger asked the erusean princess wanting to know how long new arrows will be out of action for and how long it will be before they can go home.

"According to estimates it might take a year or two to fully repair the base but the full damage assessment won't be ready until later this afternoon." she told the flight lead who sighed that he'd tell his squadron that their home has been attacked.

Laura scooched her way over to Avril "So Avril did you like going up in the foxhound?" Laura asked as she remembered the time trigger took her up in the foxhound.

"Yeah I loved what I saw up there." she said as she put some grapes into her cereal. "So Laura, did your brother manage to take you up in the jet?" she wondered if he ever took his sister up to see what she saw.

"Yes he did actually." Laura responded catching both by surprise since Trigger had used the favour that someone owed him.

"How?" Avril and Rosa asked at the same time.

"I had to do nightwatch for an entire week when I was on the foxhound but it was worth it since vice chairman Edwards of the joint chief of staff was the one owed me a favour." Trigger said grinning as Avril and Rosa couldn't believe that such a high ranking man owed Trigger a favour.

"So Laura when did your brother become so hot blooded?" Avril asked her, Laura was surprised since that didn't sound like her brother.

"Honestly that was mostly due to my asshole hyperion squadmates who always made sure that I flew most of the bomber milk run intercepts all by myself and treated me like crap, teasing me when we did simulated attack runs on tanker planes. Laura looked at her brother picking up that there was something he wasn't telling her or anyone but thought it wise to let trigger tell her when he's ready.

"Seriously I had the most air intercept to a point that I became a lone wolf where I break off from element and go for the target." he told them which surprised all of them as Trigger quietly drank his juice.

"Another thing that you don't know is Scott flies very recklessly and pushes his aircraft aggressively not seeming to care about the state of his jet." Laura dropped her spoon in disbelief at what she had just heard.

"Scott what the hell happened to you in that penal unit?" Laura turned to look at him but Trigger could hear the shock in her voice that this war had changed her brother this much.

Trigger sighed to himself knowing that his sister was right, the war had changed him and in some cases not for the better. "I'll answer your question with one of my own. What do you think it means when you say stick with Trigger and you'll make it?"

Avril simply composed herself "Well when i hear that it fill me with hope that if i stick with you then you'll get us out of the situation alive."

Trigger raised an eyebrow before composing himself "Well when I hear that, it adds more responsibility since leading a squadron is hard enough but having to make sure everyone got back safely and to complete the mission we were given."

"You know Scott, I could see some companies wanting you out of the picture so they don't lose money." Laura mused after she finished her drink.

"Why is that sis?" Trigger propped his arms on the desk leaning forward as he moved his bowl to the side.

"Well think about it dumbass, if the lighthouse war had kept going then the companies who supply arms to both sides would be rolling in money but with you around the war ended quicker so now they have lost a lot unless you count the sales to help rebuild the erusean air force." Avril said as she turned to Rosa.

"Speaking of Erusea How is the erusean economy still standing after dumbass over here caused so much economic damage?" she asked the princess who had been quietly listening to the conversation.

"I'm not sure actually." Rosa said having not prepared for a question like that one.

"Say Rosa did anyone in your government figure out how much this dumbass has cost the erusean economy during the war?" Avril asked wondering how big of a mess her boyfriend made.

"So far my finance minster estimates over 100 trillion in damage and that's not counting the human toll on both sides." the princess bluntly said sounding not too happy at the economic wreckage that Trigger left in his wake.

"You are a walking economic disaster dumbass." Avril bluntly stated looking at Trigger who shrunk into his chair.

Avril looked at Eagle who was eating her breakfast "So Trigger how did you come up with your emblem and not the three strikes lines, I mean the animal holding the revolver."

"Well I'll show you Rosa do you have a revolver squeaky toy?" Trigger asked the princess as Laura thought back to when they were in flight school.

"Yeah its in my bedroom." she replied as Trigger got up from his seat quickly making his way to get the toy, it only took him a few minutes to bring the toy back.

Laura turned up the volume "Enn breaking news we are receiving reports that the iun has lost the case brought against it on behalf of the Hansen family, we go to our correspondent outside the courts." the reporter read as the tv shifted to the reporter.

"The court's verdict was unanimous that the iun had acted unlawfully and ignored evidence. On the 6th of June this year during a rescue attempt at the space elevator to save former president Harling who sadly lost his life, Osean air force Captain Scott Hansen was wrongfully charged and convicted with Harling's murder. but was pardoned after new evidence came to light, the court heard testimony from both sides and shown the radar evidence from both the f-16 which was used to convict the pilot and how the radar data form the awacs plane showed the defendant had targeted a erusean drone instead of mother goose one."

"The lawyer for the family argued that the false conviction has caused harm to the family. The judge in giving his verdict told the court that this was one of the worst miscarriages of justice he'd seen in his career on the bench. It was clear to the jury that the iun had acted to cover themselves and shift the blame onto the pilot."

"Eagle fetch." Trigger tossed the toy across the room and Eagle sprinted to fetch it which only took a few minutes but they watched as Eagle chewed on the toy but Trigger quickly captured the photo.

"So that is how you got that wolf emblem?" Rosa said surprised by the origin of trigger's emblem. Trigger simply nodded to her question but she could tell there was something else on his mind.

"I can't understand why a maritime escort business be taking a contracted assassination job?" Trigger told them after finishing his breakfast and the group made their way to the sofa.

"Because Scott Grgm's maritime escort business is likely a cover for something very shady if they were hired to try and assassinate you." Laura told her brother who had Avril cuddling against him with Rosa and Laura sitting in the opposite chairs.

Avril had thought about when she'd share this with trigger but after he had revealed his dual heritage so decided now was the time "Since you have dual heritage well I have that too. I'm Osean and Erusean."

"Whoa that must have been difficult. Given the war." Trigger said as he quickly recognised what Avril likely went through.

Avril was thinking of her response but noted that Laura looked sad about something "Is something the matter Laura?" she looked at the scrap queen as she pushed the horrors of the incident at cape rainy to the back of her mind.

"So I'm thinking of leaving the osean air force." she said surprising Trigger who put his drink down.

"What why?" he asked caught off guard by what his sister just said.

"Its all because of what happened at cape rainy on the final day the lighthouse war, it all started when viper squadron were on a routine cap flight when we had to fight a midway class carrier then ten phantom 2s where my jet took heavy damage despite scoring 7 kills before making it back cape rainy whereafter a pair of ww2 era yuke rocket planes jumped us and I was forced to bail out but not before killing the free eursean bastard who downed me." she said as the memories of cape rainy returned to her mind.

Laura steadied herself and continued "After landing the carrier bombers showed up and one of them kamikazed themselves into the base and another of them almost killed me."

"Yikes Sis why haven't you told anyone?" he was surprised that his sister was hiding something like that but felt like a hypocrite as he was hiding something much bigger

"Well its my problem to deal with. Congratulations btw Scott." Laura said while sipping her orange juice.

"What?" he said not having an idea on what he was being congratulated for.

"On your promotion Scott you earned it. You were promoted to the rank of major. You had a call earlier and I answered it and was told that you'd received a promotion and I know where you'll be stationed."

"So how are you able to position your jet to take hits in non critical areas?" Rosa asked him having been told about this by Mihaly when she met him during the war.

"I started doing that during my time in the navy when I served on sea eagle squadron for 9 months where our flight lead took me on a training exercise to teach me something he'd been doing for years." Trigger explained as Avril quietly listened to Trigger's recount of that flight.

"Count told me recently that during mission you never talk much why?" Avril said looking up at him curious to know the answer.

"Well Avie by keeping my mouth shut I can focus on what the mission is and have a plan for how to carry it out." Trigger told her while stroking her hair.

Trigger looked up at his sister "So wanna fly the citation with us sis?"

"Flying our family jet count me in." Laura said feeling excited to fly her family plane again.

"I'm not sure if Cyclops squadron will be coming with us but I don't know where strider are going." Trigger remarked as he and Avril got up to shower and get ready Avril's hospital appointment.

"Your squadron has been assigned to fort greys air base." Laura called as they headed inside the shower.

Vincent Harling international airport  
Selatapura  
13:30 pm

The strider squadron's three eagles & their e-767 awacs plane were parked in the airport hangers with four eagles of Cyclops squadron "So Trigger how are you and Avril going to reach fort greys since I'm having to fly your eagle." Trigger and Avril smiled as they stopped, seeing a white citation 2 corporate jet that had the registration of n153ts.

Laura was finishing her walk around of their family plane. Huxian noted the 3 black claw marks on the tail. She quickly opened the door as Huxian walked up to her.

"Laura it's nice to see you again, I heard the viper zero you flew in those missions with us was lost bummer." Huxian said as she shook Laura's hand.

"Yeah but that's replaceable." she replied as she noticed her family plane.

Trigger and Avril stepped inside the citation's cabin seeing that it had on both sides two seat around a table with a row of two seats facing each other behind it "So Avril you like?" her gaze was focusing on the cockpit.

"I love it this is really your plane?" she asked him taking that this was Trigger's plane.

"Yes it is." he replied as they stepped out of the jet.

"Hey Trigger congratulations on your promotion to major you sure earned it, something to tell my boy." Jaeger told his flight lead who made his way to the wing.

"Is there anything you won't tell your son about other than the raid on the castle?" Trigger said soundly a little bemused that Jaeger tells his son everything.

"Nope." he responded with a cheesy smile. But Edwards having just got off the phone

"So the operation go well?" Count asked Avril wondering how the op went.

"Yeah it went without a hitch now just the physio and the doc's all clear then I'll be fit to fly." Avril spoke sounding chipper.

"Scott it's so good to see you back after that horrible prison experience." Trigger turned round to see David north, Rosa, vice chairman Edwards and someone he hadn't seen in months.

"Trigger who is that?" Hux asks her flight lead not recognising the woman who was walking with the people they knew.

Trigger slightly embarrassed "It's great to see you mom but why are you here?" the others looked to Trigger "Everyone say hello to my mum and a former f-104 pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Elena Hansen" each of the pilot shook Elena's hand but Avril bowed to her before she shook her hand.

"Its an honour to meet the pliot who flew one of those beautiful machines, I'm a starfighter pilot myself." Avril said but Elena could see that Avril was treating her with a lot of respect, maybe more than she though was needed but didn't mind at all.

While this was happening edwards had received a phone call and just finished the call with the military on where to send their strike team "So Strider due to the extensive damage that your base has suffered thanks to that pre-emptive attack by free erusea, the OADF has decided to reassign your squadron major to the Fort Greys air base."

"Thank you sir." Trigger calmly said but had noticed Alexis in the corner of his eye.

Everyone stood by the private aircraft while Avril went look at the engines "So Elena is it true that you taught Trigger and Laura to fly on this jet or was he lying to us?"

Elena looked at him as if she was reading him like an open book "it is true I did teach them how to fly on this very aircraft and I think there is going to be one more person, I'll have to train before I retire." her gaze turned to Avril.

"So Avril's half erusean." Trigger said looking at his strider squad mates who hadn't expected to be told that. Huxian could see that Avril was a little nervous given the anti-erusean sentiment that had popping up over the last month with free erusea's return.

"Scrap Queen You are one of the best mechanics we've had, I trust you no matter where you come from and if anyone gives you any shit. they'll have a date with my fist." Huxian said to Avril who hugged her.

"I honestly don't get why the osean military doesn't use any common sense?" Jaeger told them knowing that their superior was near.

"Cause common sense is something the osean military doesn't have since if it did then my dad would still be alive." Trigger said knowing the vice chairman could hear him.

"Sadly that is true Trigger your father's tanker wouldn't have been shot down if the mission commander had kept it beyond the Excalibur's range and your dad didn't think it was a good idea to bring it so close either." vice chairman Edwards said getting the attention of everyone.

"Scott you aren't over Dad's death are you." Laura asked her brother who clenched his fist.

"No of course I'm not fucking over it, how could I be even after 24 years I wish there was a way to turn back time so he was here now." Trigger shouted as he sat on the citation's wing.

"Scott why didn't you tell us?" Elena said sounding very concerned that her son had just admitted that he hadn't gotten over Nathan's death despite 24 years.

"Because it was my problem to deal with mom." he responded the anger was dripping from his voice, none of strider had seen Trigger this angry before.

David who was leaning against the engine of the jet "You need to talk to someone about that Three strikes."

"David North I presume so what are doing here?" he said looking over his shoulder.

"I wanted to meet the singularity that saved 10 million lives in person." he said leaving all the strider pilots confused at what he meant by singularity.

"Singularity?" Trigger just looked at David having no idea what he was talking about.

"Trigger you are a singularity exempt from the rules that apply to everyone, your family, friends and girlfriend but Clements saw you as a risk factor once the war is over." he begin as his ai Alex took over moments later.

"There is a fact that has been observed in all of the missions that you've taken part in, all dependant elements that either mimic or follow the major have increased chances of survival." she explained but Trigger and Avril could see most of them still weren't understanding it.

"So in English?" Avril spoke rolling her eyes at Alex's summary.

"Go Trigger's way, you'll make it. He leads the way." she told the group which surprised Elena that her son could alter fate.

"So here's a question who put a 2 million zollar bounty on Trigger's head?" David said falling back into his quiz host persona that the strider pilots were on the fence about.

"What? who put a bounty on my children's head?" Elena quickly reacting to the news that her family was in danger.

"Someone wanted your son dead because he was a singularity, an invaluable asset to Osea and a risk factor now that the war is over…." he began but stopped having seen Trigger's anger growing.

"What? that's insane I would never hurt Osea not after the number of years of service I gave them." Trigger said feeling red hot anger coursing through him, it seemed he was being treated as a threat despite all he had done for the air force since he joined it years ago.

"Over 4 years and 6 months at present" Alex recounted.

"...and now miss Laura has got a bounty on her head for trying to protect her brother from harm." David explained as Elena felt anger swelling within her.

"Who wants my kids dead?" Elena asked sternly giving what David could only think was a death glare but could see that Elena's expression was more of concern than anger.

"We looked into those mimic squadron pilots, they are the kids of pilots who died when they were attacked by a long fighting falcon during the Belkan war. Your would be assassins are Otto and Elke van dalsen of General resource Guardian mercenaries a subsidiary of the General resource corporation." Elena went pale as she heard what David had just said.

Trigger quickly picked up on this "Guys can you give me and my family a few minutes alone please."

He looked at his friends who wisely picked up this was a private matter between family.

"Mom do you know anyone called Dalsen?" Trigger asked her wanting clear answers since he could read on her face that she knew more than she was telling; Trigger knew if his mom knew something then he and Laura needed to know this information immediately.

"I may do why?" she asked knowing that this was a family matter.

"We need to know since our lives depend on it." Laura said to their mom who buried her face in her hands coming to the conclusion that hiding the truth was not going to work so better share the story.

"I know the Dalsen family and now my vengeance act has come back to bite me." she said to them as she sat between them on the wing but the rest of strider, Avril and Edwards were near wanting to hear the story so they could help protect Trigger.

"What vengeance act?" Scott & Laura asked their mum who sighed to herself knowing her kids had a right to know.

_May 23rd 1995_  
_Tauberg_  
_Belka_  
_14:00pm_

_A grey fighting falcon had just disconnected from the tanker "Thank you for the fuel up honey." Elena called as she pulled away from the tanker._

_"No problem my falcon I wish we didn't have to bring the tanker so close to Excalibur since I don't think its a good idea." Nathan said as he noticed the eagles of galm team had moved ahead of them "Wait." he noticed a glow in the clouds and grabbed the yoke trying to turn the aircraft away from the light._

_The laser beam cut through the left wing sending the wingtip flying when the beam sets the number 1 engine on fire, the tanker started to dive._

_In the cockpit_

_Nathan pulled back hard on the yoke trying to pull the extender out of the dive "Damage report."_

_"Fire on number 1 engine, we're losing hydraulics." the flight engineer called as the first officer shut down the number 1 engine and pulled the extinguisher while reducing power to engine 3 to try and level the plane._

_"Mayday mayday tanker 15 been hit by laser weapon going down." Nathan called as Elena followed the tanker down._

_"Nathan pull up." Elena called raising her visor as the tanker continued its descent, Nathan saw a hill and pulled even more back to try and raise the nose._

_The extender began to climb but struck the hill, the cockpit separated moving ahead of the main fuselage and tail section which rolled over with the tail engine breaking off as pieces of the wing flew into the air when the main section came to rest near base of the hill completely engulfed in fire as the tail stopped at the base of the hill on its left side with the number 2 engine laying next to it while the cockpit had stopped ahead of the wreckage "NATHAN" Elena slammed her fist against the canopy "Those Belkans bastards will pay." she turned her falcon towards ustio._

_"Elena where are you going?" Eagle eye asked as he noticed her course had changed._

_"Fuck off Eagle eye." she said then shut off her radio."_

_She headed for the combat zone border and home._

_Four hours later_

_Cipher and Pixy were finishing their dinner when they heard the sound of a jet powering up "Elena you aren't cleared to take off." the tower controller called as Elena started rolling._

_"We better stop her." Larry said as they raced to their planes._

_Elena's falcon climbed rapidly as she searched for belkan military jet when she spotted a flight of six su-24mr fencer-e reconnaissance planes and turned to get on its tail and fired all four slammers which destroyed four of them and the remaining two tried to run but Elena easily caught and fired her 1st sidewinder into the right engine but the belkan pilots ejected._

_Elena turned her attention to the flight lead "Otavio get us out of here."_

_"I'm trying Elba." Otavio descending towards the mountains but Elena continued her pursuit closing in on her prey until she had missile lock._

_"This is for you Nate." Elena said to herself firing her last sidewinder which destroyed both engines sending the fencer-e into a fatal dive._

_"Elba bail out." Otavio called but Elba didn't want to._

_"Not without you." she said seeing the mountain ahead._

_"To the pilot of the falcon just know this I swear on the van dalsen family that there will be retribution for what you've done today." Octavio said as the fencer-e crashed into the mountain and exploded._

_She watched as the Galm team appeared "Elena stand down or we will use force" Cipher said as Larry noticed the burning wreckage._

_"Fuck off Cipher I'm more than happy to accept whatever consequences there are for me." she said as the three air force jets turned towards valias._

_It took 20 minutes to get back to the base and once Elena touched down she saw the mp waiting for her. She shut the plane down and opened the canopy getting out._

_In Jason edwards's office_

_Elena was sitting opposite osean base commander Jason Edwards "Elena why throw your career away like this for petty vengeance?"_

_"Because sir they killed my husband and they had to pay." she shouted back while she slammed her fist against the chair._

_"No they didn't and by murdering all 12 of those belkan air crew makes you no better than the belkans. Elena I'm sorry but you left me no choice you are hereby effectively immediately grounded indefinitely." Jason said to her but she knew this would be the consequence._

_"I understand." she rested her face in her hands as it dawned on her that what she had done was against everything she had been taught._

_"However as you have put in years of service you will be given an honourable discharge form the air force Elena, we pulled this from the wreckage of the tanker along with Nathan's body. I believe its yours now." he placed a dull slightly soot covered silver revolver, Elena picked up the revolver placing it in her holster "You're dismissed."_

_"Would you do it again Elena?" Jason asked the former pilot who nodded "Each time you go rogue there is a price to pay."_

_"I understand sir." she replied as she opened the door._

_"No you don't but someday you will." he said as she closed the door._

**Back in the present**

Trigger, Laura and the rest of strider and Avril were silent as Elena finished telling what happened "Not something I will tell my son about." Jaeger quietly said as vice chairman Edwards sat down next to Elena.

"You understand now don't you Elena this is the price you pay for going rogue." the vice chairman told her now understanding what he told her all those years ago.

"Yes I do now, Scott, Laura I'm so sorry." Elena said, Trigger wanted to say something but remembered all the pilots he'd likely killed and how many of them had family like him.

Elena looked at her kids like she had failed them "Mom we'll take down these bats after all if they think they can take down three strikes and the blue viper they have another thing coming." Laura confidently said as the others groaned at the awful nickname.

Trigger rolled his eyes at Laura who scowled back at him "Name needs work there sis."

Trigger and Laura hugged their mom tightly as she felt her guilt fading when she noticed Alexis near the nose.

"Oh my god what have you done." Alexis said feeling shocked that her best friend had done that all over her husband's loss.

Elena looked over seeing someone she hadn't seen in years "Alexis its been a long time my old friend."

"Elena long time no see." she said making her way to the wing who got up and walked over to her old friend.

Alexis and Elena hugged each other "God its nice to see you again Elena." Trigger and Avril looked at each other both were stumped as to how their moms knew each other.

"Mom how do you know Trigger's Mom?" she asked her mom who smiled as she and Elena leaned against the fuselage of the jet.

"I was her mechanic when she flew with the ustio air force." she told them as she looked at the eagle remembering the ones she worked on during her time in the ustio air force.

"They do say like mother like daughter since Avril's your son's chief mechanic now, with her leg fixed she'll soon be flying again." Count couldn't help but blurt out till both Trigger and Avril gave him a headslap.

Elena and Alexis's gaze turned back on Trigger and Avril as they both thought of something fun "You know Elena your son and my Avie do make a good couple I bet in a year or 2 they'll be married and have a kid on the way." Alexis told her while the other strider pilots couldn't contain their laughter at Trigger and Avril being teased by their moms.

"Mom" Avril and Trigger both said at the same time embarrassed at their mom's teasing.

"So are you and Avril a thing now Boss?" Count asked the subtlety was nowhere in sight.

"Yes she is my girlfriend." he told him but Huxian snickered know how obvious he and Avril were that they wanted each other.

"Here's a question what are the odds that our grandchildren have a triple heritage?" Alexis said as Alex calculated the odds.

"A 98.5 percent chance." she replied surprising even Trigger and Avril that if they had a child it would have triple heritage.

"So Dumbass when will you make us grandmas cause we aren't getting any younger?" Alexis said knowing Elena was getting into her late 50s.

"Mom we're not having kids yet I hope unless it wasn't a safe day to do it in the lovers lagoon." Avril said sheepishly as she and Trigger realised that they may become parents sooner than they'd like.

"You know I was very concerned that Scott would be too stupid to land himself a woman." Laura said poking her head between Trigger and Avril.

Avril let out a hearty laugh "Oh Laura your brother is the right kind of stupid for me." she replied flashing a sly grin to Trigger's sister "btw mom want to come along with us to Fort Greys?.

"No we're going to help out with the refugees since you've already got a scrap queen but maybe sometime we'll stop by and visit."

"So Huxian how's your sister?" Laura asked Huxian who was baffled since she hadn't mentioned her to the squad.

"How?" she asked the former viper who recalled her overseas assignment.

"In 2017 viper squadron was sent to Aurelia and during my stay, I met your sister who was flying phantom trainers I also saw the southern lights there as well." she told the strider pilot as she stood in the door way of the citation.

"Well last I heard form Katherine she had become the lead of the Gryphus squadron who still fly the e-model phantom 2s." she said knowing she'll have to tell her squadmates about her sister.

"Wait I thought the f-4s would have been retired by now." Count said but Trigger having flown phantoms in training knew that the old warbird still had some flying left in it.

"No last I read online Verusea and Aurelia bought most of the air force phantom fleet for their air forces in the early post circum-pacfic war years when Osea began fully removing the phantoms form mainline service. The e-model replaced the older c- model phantoms that the two countries used." he explained to his wingman.

"Well then let's go strider squadron scramble." Trigger said as everyone rushed to their jets.

It took a few minutes for each of them to get the engines started. David, Rosa, vice chairman Edwards, Elena and Alexis watched as the strider eagles took off followed minutes later by the citation.

Schofield plateau air base  
Schofields plateau  
Usea  
17:30 pm

Trigger, Laura and Avril were seated near the citation as it was being refuelled.

"So the refuelling will take another five minutes." Trigger responded looking at his jet but Avril having seen Laura not touch the automation wondered why she never used his automated systems.

"Dumbass tell me something why doesn't your sister use the automated systems on your plane wouldn't they make things easier?" she wondered as she had watched Laura fly the plane.

"Well Avril, Trigger and I prefer hand flying since it allows us to know what the plane is doing so we can react to what its trying to do."

He looked at her "That is what you'll need to understand in your flight training." Laura knew that what Trigger was saying to Avril.

"Mom will get that into your head, she will make sure you know that by making you repeat procedures over and over until you get it right, she did it with us during our flight training." Laura told the mechanic who had finished her dinner. The refuelling truck detached form the citation.

"So Scott you're flying this leg to Fort Greys." the three pilots walked back to the citation.

"Trigger can I sit up front with you for this leg?" Avril asked as they re-boarded the citation which after a short taxi took off again heading for Fort greys.

Fort greys air base  
fort greys island  
Usea  
19:00 pm

The sun had gone down as Count, Jaeger and Huxian spotted a mystery jet on the ground at the base. "Who sent this jet?" Count wondered as the ground crew got to work as the sound of private jet flew over the hill.

"So Trigger's finally shown up." Hux said looking up to see the flashing lights of the citation.

the citation touched down at the base deploying its thrust reversers. The citation came to a stop taxing towards them.

The citation taxied to its parking spot, they could hear the jt15d engines powering down.

"So is the mirage for trigger's flight training?" Count asked Huxian who again leaned against her eagle. She knew their training would be hard.

Trigger knew he had it even harder since he would have to learn how to fly delta wing jets then the warwolf and help Avril with physiotherapy.

"Yeah i'd say so." Huxian chimed as they walked up to the citation as the door of the citation opened.

"So our family plane will be here ehh" Laura mused stepping of the plane.

"That it will be sis." Trigger responded form the cabin.

Trigger carried Avril from the plane much to her embarrassment "Dumbass I appreciate you doing this, but you can let me down now.

"What do you think of Fort Greys Scrap Queen, its nice place isn't it?" he asked as her could see the outline of the mirage and three eagles.

"Yeah it is." she responded as Trigger slowly let Avril down.

"I'll give you guys the grand tour tomorrow." he told the group who went to get settled in at their new home.

A/n

I hope you enjoyed this chapter of meeting of aces and now my irl will be changing sometime in the future but until then I'll try to continue writing even if I have a reduced number of days now i just finished Ace combat 3 electrosphere today and i'll be frank i was disappointed, the story was not very good and not easy to understand, the control scheme was hard to use and the graphics weren't very good but i shouldn't be surprised give the game is from the end of the 90s and the start of the 2000s and while the game was fun its one i'd rank as worst in the ace combat series and one i'll not play again.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Ace combat, the characters featured nor any aircraft mentioned

November 3rd 2020  
Desert air base  
Usea  
6:45am

Avril's eyes snapped open, She had been working till midnight inspecting the drone and making sure it was ready for the flight later.

She looked around seeing no sign of Trigger who she had to share the bed with but had a good idea where he was. So climbed out of bed grabbing her top and bed sheet and made her way to the gym with only one thought in mind.

Avril walked down the corridor towards the gymnasium she had just left her room and had something naughty in mind she left her clothes behind in her room and only had her oil stained top and bed sheet covering her.

**At the gymnasium**

Avril stepped into the gymnasium noting that Trigger was laying on a table. "Morning you dumbass," she told him with a slight happy smile but Trigger didn't mind that nickname in fact he preferred it over the Scotty nickname.

She walked over to him climbing onto the table getting herself comfortable on Trigger's back.

"So Trigger how many push ups can you do with me on top of you hmm?" She mused as Trigger started doing his push ups.

Avril slowly lifts her top up revealing her soot coated skin that Trigger couldn't help but get drawn to her toned chest but his slipped and he fell to his side. "Stay focused you dumbass,"

Trigger picked himself up "Of course Avie." Avril's hand slipped towards his trouser zip slowly and carefully undoing it but Trigger couldn't resist looking back. She carefully slid his trousers down his legs leaving him in his pants. She rapidly threw her top away swiftly wrapping the bed sheet around herself.

"Come on stop teasing me Avie and lets get to what we both want." Trigger groaned as Avril let her sheet drop revealing her naked form.

Trigger couldn't help but stare at how beautiful she was. Without even thinking Avril bent forward passionately kissed the strider flight lead "Trigger you know what we both want!" Avril spoke with a husky tone in her voice.

They rolled over till Trigger was on top of Avril.

She quickly disposed of Trigger's pants revealing his hard 7 inch long cock, the Scrap Queen licked her lips in anticipation of what she wanted.

45 minutes later

Trigger could see she was satisfied as the two pilots were basking in the afterglow of their orgasm as they leaned back onto the sofa bed.

She snuggled up against Trigger when the calm peace was shattered by a new voice came over the speaker and he sounded angry. "Goddamn it will all you dumbasses find those 2 pilots they are now 45 minutes late."

"Yikes we're in trouble now" Trigger spoke with no sarcasm in his voice but was too busy staring into Avril's hazel eyes to listen.

"Avril if somehow I got you knocked up I'd propose to you right now." Trigger had a hint of fear that he knocked her up with the passionate sex they had just had.

"That's so sweet Trigger that you'd do that for me!" Avril had an enormous smile on her face as they just sat there letting their juices leak out onto the bed.

"If you do that then we may as well tie the knot too!" Avril said grinning as thoughts of her walking down the aisle filled her head. She couldn't deny to herself that she didn't dream about spending the rest of her life with trigger.

"Did I ever tell you that you are one of the most attractive and beautiful woman I have ever met." he spoke pulling the sheet over himself and the Scrap Queen.

"I may be many things but cute is definitely not one of them unless its only to you, want to go again or shall we do it later?" Avril's voice was laced with lust but felt exhausted from the sex she had just had with Trigger.

She had another question on her mind "Trigger how the fuck were you able to go for this long?" she was surprised at how Trigger could fuck her on the table, a treadmill and the sofa then the sofa bed.

"My mum's side of the family was good at sporting events, and I exercise a few times a day." he said as Avril wrapped her fingers around his with their legs wrapped around each other.

"So if you are the king of the skies, does that make me your queen?" Avril said blushing deeply as she propped her head on his chest.

"Only if we end up getting married." he said as they drifted off to a peaceful sleep.

They slept for another hour. Avril was happily dreaming peacefully about her and Trigger who was rousing from his slumber but he looked at Avril's sleeping form admiring her beauty.

He turns his head to see Huxian sitting on the sofa opposite them smiling "Avril wake up."

The Scrap Queen was slow to awaken clearly enjoying her dream a lot "Avril wakey wakey we have company." Avril opened her eyes rubbing the sleep from her eyes only to see Huxian sitting on the opposite sofa.

Avril could see the grin pasted over Huxian's face like she was a cat who had gotten her cream "I think you make a cute couple but your affections for Trigger weren't subtle mead." she said chuckling as Avril covered herself with sheet embarrassed.

"Oh shut up fox!" Avril said as Huxian easily noticed the hickies on them.

"Well I think you both had fun." Huxian chuckling lightly with an even bigger grin on her face, she knew they had been doing it.

She could smell the scent of sex in the room, she felt happy for her flight lead that he'd found someone.

"So see you both at breakfast after you guys clean up that is," she said flinging them their clothes.

"So let's get cleaned up cause the inquiry needs you after breakfast," he said getting up, carrying Avril and their clothes to the shower.

****In the mess hall****

Huxian walked in followed by Trigger and Avril five minutes later "So doing it in the gymnasium, is there anywhere you both won't get it on?"

Avril blushed as Trigger slowly rubbed her back "Huxian you can't talk, you and Count have been having casual sex throughout the year." Trigger shot back at his number 4.

"Damm it I thought we were being subtle." Huxian groaned leaning back in her chair.

"So the base co gave us the day off once we get back to fort greys any plans?" Avril and Trigger liked the news that they had a free day.

"Well Avie and I are going over to the fort greys crater beach later for a beach day date what about you?" Trigger asked his number 4.

"Got to get my final check flight for the raptor later on but you lovebirds can't keep your hands off each other for a minute. So what did you think of the Halloween party last weekend?" she asked them.

"That Halloween party was very good although my final flight in the eagle didn't go as I had hoped when I got attacked by four kaizen and a super hornet fighter and a stratojet drone." Trigger explained thinking back to that last flight in the eagle.

"So election today any idea on who will win?" Huxian asked seemingly unaware of the fact that neither Trigger or Avril had voted cause they couldn't.

"Don't know but me and Avril weren't able to vote thanks to the former criminal convictions and technically you're a criminal too." Huxian looked at her flight lead stumped dropping her spoon.

"What?" she said as Avril rolled her eyes taken aback that Huxian didn't know.

"Huxian are you aware that when you shot Avril's starfighter down you committed a war crime?" Trigger told her "Officially under the lumen convention of 1911, it's a war crime to fire on a non-combatant so you'd be facing a prison sentence over the downing of Avril's starfighter."

Avril had read up on the lumen convention when she was talking with Serena about possible legal action she could have against the air force for the shoot down.

"Shit I don't want to go to a penal unit." Huxian said realising just how bad her error truly was.

"I know I'd rather not lose one of my best squadron pilots cause of this but shouldn't you be getting ready for the flight for the inquiry?" Trigger told her as they sipped their drinks.

"Well the drone is being fuelled up with how much they think was onboard during the accident so I have time for breakfast. So have you heard about the war between Aurelia and Leasath I heard there is some new ace called the southern cross?" Huxian asked them as she had been trying to keep in contact with her sister in Aurelia.

"Well Huxian's sister is the flight lead of the Gryphus squadron and I hear she's really kicking ass." Trigger said with a smile knowing who would be next into the club for aces who end a war and save the world.

"I'm so proud of her. My sister is the southern cross!" Huxian said but Trigger had something else on his mind.

"I wouldn't be surprised if one of the sides hasn't taken advantage of the chaos caused by the satellite iff destruction and these transport shoot downs and the conflict in Aurelia." Trigger bluntly said as he thought about all the shoot downs that had happened through the year.

"Why do you think that?" Avril inquired at him pondering how the three seemingly unrelated events were linked."

"With the satellite iff out the transport or the fighters would never know what had attacked them and someone who wants to make money could easily exploit the satellite outage." he explained to them as he could only think either Aurelia or Leasath were behind the shoot downs.

"Avril on the morning of your shoot down the ground crew and I were on the airfield when we heard the sonic booms so they sent me up to investigate when the mq-99s showed up and you know what happened next." Huxian said thinking back to the day of the incident.

"Well that's vital information to the inquiry." Pierre said as he sat down at their table.

"So how about we finish breakfast before we get on with this inquiry." Huxian said as she consumed her coffee. The three pilots and the general tucked into their breakfast.

****Half an hour later****

Trigger and Avril headed into the classroom that had a replica of an f-104c cockpit "Avril if you want to back out, the inquiry panel will not hold it against you."

Avril placed a finger on his lip "No I need to do this!" she took the seat but felt a little uneasy as she taxied the starfighter drone to the runway then advanced the throttle engaging the afterburner moments later.

The Starfighter took off and rapidly climbed to 50,000 feet levelling the drone off.

Avril watched the monitor of the cockpit but felt uneasy as the jet cruised at 50,000 feet when she pulled the starfighter turned into a climbing right turn as the eagle turned to pursue.

The camera turned to see an eagle closing fast which only made Avril feel more uneasy when everyone heard the bullets ricocheting off the fuselage but when the sound of a 20mm bullet penetrating the cockpit which was when she realised she had just witnessed her shoot down from Cynthia's perspective.

The drone dropped from 50,000 feet losing height at a rate of 4500 feet per minute as they could all hear the engine fire bell ringing out, her mind raced as thoughts of the aircraft burning up around her, she could feel a sense of dread rising within her as the low oil pressure warning bell sounds while the plane continued descending.

Avril felt horrified as she watched the plane drop through 29,000 feet "Why hasn't the pilot bailed out?"Cynthia shouted over her radio, but Avril knew why she hadn't bailed out.

"The ejection system was knocked out!" she said as her mind raced with thoughts of the aircraft erupting into a fireball, the plane crashing short of the runway.

"Avril you okay?" Trigger asked but Avril looked at him with a poker face and a voice full of fear as she felt herself back in the situation she faced in may but kept watching as the aircraft's flap and speedbrake lines failed.

The starfighter's nose raised slowly as Avril tried to reduce the rate of descent to 3500 feet per minute but it had fallen to 6000 feet, the scrap queen's eyes looked at the gauges seeing systems were failing "The hydraulic alarm will be going off in a moment!"

Just as Avril said, the sound of the hydraulic loss warning, she looked out towards the desert as she saw herself as a little kid flying a model aircraft, herself climbing a starfighter to retrieve the Adi, she saw herself sitting in the cockpit of the starfighter with no engine then climbing into the plane for her maiden flight.

She saw the widowmaker plough straight into the hard sand dune, Avril could feel herself being thrown forward into the cockpit instrument panel as the fire form the rear consumed the cockpit, she could feel the flames ravage her body as the plane broke apart taking her along with it as the fireball consumed her, she could easily see she had no chance if she continued her current course.

She flipped the switch on the panel that lowered a small propeller into the wind below the crippled jet but the camera looked around till it spotted an airfield. Avril turned the limping drone towards the base.

The starfighter continued losing height, but she could see the sand dune seconds before impact, Avril's hand without thinking pulled the nose up as it struck the sand dune nosing into the ground.

The seat jolted as Avril watched the starfighter drone erupted into flames but she could only watch as the burning jet skidded across the runway with the aft fuselage fully consumed in flames.

The sound of metal scraping filled the room as the external tail camera went dead as the ground camera captured the jet skidding out of control with a fuel fire burning behind it.

The plane finally came to rest as the fire crept up the fuselage but Trigger helped her out as what she saw next would be seared into her mind for the rest of her life as the fire engulfed the forward section as the cockpit burst in flames with thick black smoke shooting up into the sky.

Avril felt afraid at the sight of how she could have died, so clutched Trigger tightly as the fire crew reached the burning drone starting to spray it down

"Avril its alright you are safe with us, the flight is over now, you don't have to worry any more." he said trying to comfort her but could see the tears but not sad more like one of happiness.

"Its not that I'm upset more like happy that I lived!" she said as tears ran down her face.

"Miss mead your airmanship in pulling off the crash landing was spectacular your father would be proud of your flying although probably not of the stuff you did to get into the sky." Pierre told her as the starfighter continued burning.

"You knew my dad sir!" she said surprised that general Pierre la point knew her dad.

"I was his squadron commander and when I learned he hadn't made it I was more concerned about how his wife and child would take it. Avril I think you'll be a great air show pilot once you get a warbird." Pierre explained recognising Avril's skill in the starfighter.

"Well sir she passed her final check flight and the plane will be taking its maiden flight on Thursday so she will be back flying soon…"Trigger told him knowing the aircraft was going to be ready in 2 days. "But something still doesn't add up how does an experienced air force pilot mistake an f-104 for an mq-99 in the first place?"

"When I look at the two aircraft, they do look similar but as I watched Huxian's camera footage I could see the t-tail clearly so you should have been able to see it wasn't an mq-99." Trigger commented having seen the recreation of the events.

"So from the footage Huxian should have been seeing the jet wasn't a drone but one thing still puzzles me where was the shoot down?" Trigger inquired wondering where the shoot down was. He had heard conflicting reports of where the shoot down had happened.

"I had taken off from a dirt airstrip near the futuro canal and if I'm right there's a border station air base not far away!" Avril said as Pierre made a mental note to visit the scrapyard to make some inquiries.

"Well unfortunately, with no transponder we don't have an exact radar track however the secondary radar tracked the warbird and it looks like Avril had unknowingly flown into the base's airspace when Huxian engaged her a clear recipe for disaster." one of the osean pilots who had been watching the flight carefully.

A straightforward case of pilot error on both Avril and Huxian's parts." Pierre told them recognising the hallmark of an accidental shoot down caused by the mistakes he had seen a few in his career and always it was the same.

"So Trigger, Avril you have been an invaluable help to the inquiry dismissed." he told them as Trigger and Avril stopped by the door.

"Sir." Trigger gave a quite salute and left the room with Avril in tow.

It took a few minutes for them to get down to the flight line where Huxian was waiting by the citation "Shall we go?" he asked as Huxian opened the door.

"Of course." the 2 ladies said stepping inside the cabin, Trigger stepped into the private jet closing the door behind him.

Fort greys air base  
fort greys island  
Usea  
11:00am

Trigger, Avril and Huxian stepped off the citation "So Trigger how about we go and pack what we need for our beach day and I'll meet by the docks in an hour!"

"Scrap Queen how's the leg?" Laura asked the Scrap Queen wondering how Avril's leg was after all the training she had undergone during the year.

"Doing great actually I've had brief moments of phantom pain. The emmerian doctor who pioneered the procedure should get an award."

So see you at the docks in an hour!" Avril told Trigger as she went to go and pack for her beach day with Trigger walking in the direction of his room.

****an hour later****

Trigger and Avril walked into the navy docks "Afternoon major." the dockman said as they walked to the pier where their boat was moored.

Avril had changed into a light black top with dark blue jeans and slip on shoes while Trigger had chosen a dark green shirt with navy blue trousers "Is the boat all fuelled up?" Trigger asked the dockmaster.

"Affirmative Trigger." the dockmaster replied as Trigger and Avril climbed down into the boat.

Trigger started up the engine as Avril sat down next to him "Hey Trigger tell me something are you still grieving all the friends you lost?"

The speedboat left the docks powering through the water "Yeah I have been but I looked up to Harling he was one of my idols." Trigger softly said as they passed the first island chain. "Actually for a while thought I had killed Harling a man both me and my sister looked up to."

"So the fort greys islands were made up of four islands until the Ulysses asteroid destroyed two of them but this island houses the radar station that serves as an early warning station and outer marker for the ils." Trigger told knowing that was vital for when she was flying.

The newman crater came into view. The island looked like someone had taken a huge basketball and smashed it into the island. "Is this the result of the asteroid?"

Trigger nodded "Oh shit!" Avril said leaning back in her seat "What was the island used for before it was destroyed?"

"The island use to be home to several air bases." Trigger explained as they soon reach the beach, and were in awe. The sands were as gold the colour, the water as blue as the sky.

**Newman island crater**

Trigger parked up the boat and they stepped onto the beach. They could hear the sounds of the waves crashing against the rocks.

They spent the next few minutes getting the tent setup "So I'm gonna change into my swimsuit unless you want to watch?" she said flashing him a sly smile.

Trigger went behind the tent to change as Avril pulled her top off.

Trigger stood there in his marine blue swimming wear waiting for Avril to step out from the tent but what he saw made him stop in his tracks, she had a black bikini that had orange wrench patterns on the bottom, her tanned skin was covered in oil and grease stains that screamed that she'd been working on a plane but he noticed the scar on her right leg from her crash "So how do I look?" Avril asked as Trigger stuttered struggling to find the right words to say.

"Beautiful absolutely beautiful," he said as she blushed at his compliment. "So what shall we do first?"

"Well you could rub sunscreen on me." Avril said resting on her front. Trigger poured a good amount onto her back and starts slowly rubbing it over her, Avril felt her skin tingle with every touch "Hard to believe this use to be a meteor crater now its a lagoon with a beach!"

"Yeah but I'd rather enjoy it with you Avie." he said smiling while lifting up her arm to rub lotion over it.

He swiftly did the same to the other arm then Avril rolled over to let Trigger put lotion on her front "So Scott you flew out of fort greys for a while was it quiet while you were stationed there?"

"Well mostly it was until operation deer horn when twelve bear and a lone blackjack bombers with ten fishbed fighters attacked the base it was absolute chaos so I was scrambled with Clown and Golem squadron to intercept them, I in fact became an ace that day although the aircraft carrier albatross was sunk in the harbour."

"Ouch do you think Free erusea will strike the base?" Avril queried but Trigger rolled his eyes at her.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't since to them we are a threat to whatever they have planned now please close your eyes I'm going to put lotion on your face." he said as Avril closed her eyes, Trigger rubbed sunscreen over her face "There now how about I use the spray on you to save time."

Avril pulled out the spray and spent the next 10 minutes applying it to Trigger then they laid back on the beach towel.

"So let's bask in the sun's rays for a bit oh btw..." Trigger carefully placed silver sunglasses on Avril's face "...There I think that suits you."

Trigger put his pair of white sunglasses on as they looked out towards the lagoon "So Trigger tell me something when did you realise you were in love with me?"

"My Sister was the one who was the first to notice actually she's superb at interpreting people, she picked up that I was in love with you." he stared into her hazel eyes "Avie I think you are the one for me, the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."he wrapped his hand around hers.

"Dumbass don't go soppy on me now save the proposal till after you've destroyed, free erusea. Avril Hansen does have a nice ring to it!.." Avril quietly said propping her head on her arms. "..So what's your middle name?"

"Yeah saying it aloud it does and my middle name is Nathaniel what's yours?" he asked her, Avril rolled onto her side while her hand snaked round the back to loosen the clasp of her bikini top.

"Sunbathing topless I see I didn't think you'd be so bold." Trigger said grinning knowing they were alone.

"Well you dumbass, its only us here so I'll go topless and its Alison!" she said pulling his shorts down.

"So Avril Alison Mead my Scrap Queen, I'm curious to know more about you." he asked wanting to know more about the love of his life.

"Well I was born in a little town outside November city in 1997, my early childhood wasn't easy cause my mom had to raise me all alone until my dad re-entered my life when I was 6 and after my mom and Alonso dated for six months, he and mom got married. My mom could tell I would grow up to become a pilot like dad as pilots have been in my family for four generations now!"

"Hmm just how far back is that I wonder since I don't even know how far back flying goes in my family. So did your family life improved after your parents got together?"

"I wish it did but alas it didn't because when I was going to school I was bullied because my mom's side was erusean and they were not well like at the time of the first continental war but I tried to ignore it unsuccessfully but if I thought things couldn't get worse they did in 2010 when my dad was lost in Yuketobania as you already knew, my mom Alexis fell into a severe depression over dad's death but still tried to raise me however Gramps who had lost faith in the air force grew very concerned that his daughter was spiralling it got so bad that Mom agreed with Gramps that I should go live with him for a while which meant I was pulled out of school."

Trigger's eyes widened that Alexis who seemed so strong could break so easily "Alexis must passionately have loved your dad if she took his death that badly and after you went to live your grandpa I assume this is where that wrecked starfighter came in?"

"Yeah it was a passion project that Gramps started with his war buddies who taught me everything they knew and some dirty jokes but with their eyesight disappearing I did most of the work. Gramps was very good friends with the supervisor at the scrapyard so we got to take whatever we wanted!"

"Wait so you never finished school and your grandfather and his friends were teaching a 14 year old how to be a mechanic and how to rebuild a 50s air force interceptor doesn't that seem dangerous and somewhat illegal to just take parts from a scrapyard." Trigger pointed out since he'd thought you couldn't just do that.

"Touche I am as criminal as you were but I expect things to change when it all comes out once the finished report is released." Avril said with a small smile "Gramps knew how we were restoring the aircraft was questionable but he wanted to have the plane legally registered before its maiden flight and I think you know how that went."

"Yeah but I agree you showed great airmanship with getting the aircraft down, so your parents what were they like?" Trigger said to her as she laid on his chest.

"My mom Alexis was born in 1975 in the suburbs of Selatapura, from what she told me her family life was a bit better than mine was after finishing her college years with a degree in engineering she joined the ustio air force as a mechanic where as you know she was Elena's mechanic until November 1996 when she met my dad Alonso, they had a one night stand but she got pregnant with me so with gramps's help she moved to November City!"

"So what does Alexis do now to earn a living?" Trigger asked knowing that Alexis would need to have a job to have come to usea.

"Well she works as chief mechanic at November city air force base!" Avril responded as her hand drifted down to her ass.

"What planes does she repair there?" Trigger slowly removed her bikini bottom leaving them both naked but neither cared since no one was nearby.

"She mostly repairs the new ef-111f raven but does handle other jets when they are visiting the air base!" Avril said as Trigger remembered that they had been utilized against the Alicorn.

"So your deceased father what he like?" Trigger asked her inquiring about what her dad was like when he was alive.

"My father Alonso mead was born outside oured in the 60s and from what mom told me he was a nice man and loving father, he joined the OADF in the early 80s flying the su-27 flanker-b and flew in the belkan war where he became an ace!"

Avril began thinking back to what her mom had divulged to her. Trigger stared at her trying to not to want to have sex with her at that moment.

"During the concluding years of his career, the flanker-b he flew was upgraded to the sm flanker-b1 model which if remember rightly osean retired in the early post circum-pacific war years and sold to Aurelia!"

"What were you parents like when they were together?" Trigger asked pondering just how Avril's parents were when they were together.

"Well my parents got on well although they came to blows over Dad returning to the air force after Angela died in the 1st continental war years earlier!" She said leaving Trigger inquiring who Angela was.

"My first cousin Angela mead or yellow 4 was the number two in the yellow squadron of the erusean air force but she died over Stonehenge, I'm certain you saw the remains of her terminator at Stonehenge!" She began but stopped looking at Trigger who remembered the burned out remains of a terminator in several pieces near the number four gun.

"Mum told her the terminator should be grounded but Angela like mom was stubborn and sortied with the damage and you know what happened after!" she said as a p-1 patrol plane flew over.

Trigger stroked her cheek, but she looked at him asking "So are you concerned that one day mega-corporations will be managing the world?"

"Straight up yeah, General resources remain a vital concern to the higher ups given what their mimic squadron did during the lighthouse war." he responded thinking about what they might do in future. Now wanna go skinny dipping?"

"Sure but wait you picked up something to help us breathe underwater didn't you?" Avril asked him as Trigger stood up handing her a rebreather.

"Rebreathers and goggles now let's go." The pair put on their swimming gear and ran into the water but as they waded into the deeper part of the water "let's dive oh btw these rebreathers have underwater radios."

The pair slipped below the surface as they descended down the sand bank they spotted multiple rows of coral which looked like a forest of coral but Trigger observed a dark hole and felt it was best to not get any closer as Avril caught up to him. He pointed to the centre of deep area and swayed his head which Avril picked up on as not as safe.

The pair floated as a school of bluefish tuna approached the pair. Avril stared remembering when her dad had taken her to the November city aquarium when she was a child.

"Beautiful aren't they?" Avril said as a colony of angelfish swam beside them.

"Yeah they are look dolphins." Trigger called as the dolphins swam around the pair seemly happy. The dolphins had a white belly and grey coat. the Dolphins descended into the crater with Trigger and Avril following when they discovered a field of debris.

"Just what happened here!" Avril said as they floated seeing the fuselage split into several pieces. The pair swam through the debris field careful to avoid sharp bits of exposed metal.

"I think this was one of the old cargo haulers between the Newman island bases and fort greys air base until its destruction a c-31 troopship if I'm not mistaken." Trigger swam by the cockpit seeing the nose was crumpled.

Avril swam by the tail but spotted a map laying in the sand she extracted it causing the silt fall off. "Trigger I unearthed what looks like a map."

Trigger swam up to her, "I think its a map of the old submarine base that was here I always wanted to explore the place and see what I could uncover." Avril had an idea that she knew Trigger would like.

"Then why don't we go topside and see if we can find a way in if any of the base remained that is!" Avril suggested which Trigger liked the sound of so they headed topside.

****Back on the beach****

Trigger and Avril stepped out of the water both dripping with water but Trigger bound his arms around her "Want to have a quickie?" he said which Avril relished the idea of so kissed him and they feel onto the sand.

20 minutes later

Avril and Trigger lay on the sand "Well you definitely know how to please a woman!"

"Well I'm going to wait till Thursday till we have sex again." Trigger smiled leaving Avril to ponder what he had in mind.

"So if we got wedded where would we live?" Avril asked wondering where they'd settled down after retirement.

"Well when my grandma died my mum inherited our old family home in solis ortus so we could live there?" Trigger said reaching over to pick up her bikini top and his shorts and Avril slipped them on as she grabbed her bikini bottom.

"Live in Ustio well we should think about that and decide at a later date!" Avril said now dressed in her bikini but Trigger looked at her right leg knowing the gel was there.

"Avril the gel in your leg is not going to permanently repair the fracture in your leg it will only last according to the doctor about 20 years then it will likely and we'll be back to square one again." Trigger told her thinking about what the doctor told him "Also your leg is not as strong as it was before the crash."

Avril sighed to herself knowing that her mobility to walk was only temporary so Trigger decided to change the subject "you know I think you look stunning with that tan of yours." he said seeing that Avril's skin tone had gone from light brown to a darker brown.

"So isn't your skin tone caucasian?" Avril asked seeing Trigger's skin tone had gone from white to a light brown.

"Well it is, but my mom's side of the family has some erusean genes form one of my great grandparents who was erusean that make our skin tan easily when exposed to sunlight I use it to know when I've been out in the sun too long." Trigger explained as they lay in the sun soaking up the rays.

Avril placed her hand against her belly. She wasn't sure if it was a safe day to be intimate with Trigger but she'd know in over a month.

"So a man named Gabriel Clarkson was elected as the iun delegate for usea and I had heard that a man named Gilbert park was elected as secretary general of the iun last week I'm curious to see how he does given the whole mess." Avril was too pondering how the politicians were going to solve the whole mess.

"Well they've got their work cut out for them given the state usea was left in after the lighthouse war.." Trigger and Avril stepped inside the cave when the ground shook. Tones of soil and rocks slid down the hill burying the entrance.

****Inside the cave****

Trigger and Avril were more than halfway inside the cave when the crashing sound of rocks captured their attention "Wait here."

Trigger peered round the corner seeing a load of rocks blocking the entrance "Damm it we're trapped." He looked back at Avril who knew there had to be another way out somewhere.

"Do you feel that?" Avril said flipping the switch on the torch. Trigger felt the ocean breeze.

"Yeah I do it feels like its coming from over this way." he said turning the light on his torch and began to follow the breeze.

"You know its ironic the very people your granddad hated over the death of your dad is the same people you know work for." Trigger couldn't help but point out. Avril stopped as she thought about what Trigger said.

"Hmm so I expect the iun will be calling us to take care of free erusea since the usean, erusean and iun and osean forces took heavy damage and quite frankly I'm unsure if Strider and Cyclops will be enough even with support since the iun only have five squadrons active even after a year of recovery but with the damage the osean navy suffered with losing 19 ships which give another year or two can be replaced but people cannot be so easily replaced."

"Well I have a feeling we'll be quite busy soon but according to rumours free erusea are sending a lot more this time but I thought free Erusea only had operations in northern Erusea!" Avril said as they continued deeper into the cave.

"I had heard that free erusea lost 7 planes in an air attack on my sister's squadron then lost 13 planes in the raid on the lrssg base then lost 15 planes in a failed raid on port Edwards and now add in the 10 planes they lost today in the failed air attack on us that bring them down a few but ultimately the fuel needed to feed the forces is going to become too great or too few if they have many fighters which they do." Trigger recounted the info he'd heard from

"So how do we get out of here?" Avril asked as Trigger's torch instantly revealed an open hallway.

"If my hunch is right this could have been part of the submarine base that was operational on this island so just maybe there are some patrol boats we can use to get off the crater.

As they walked through the tunnel, they saw several passageways that were blocked by debris. "The meteor did all this?"

"That it did." Trigger brought his torch onto the wall instantly revealing the word armoury "So we're near the armoury." They peered anxiously inside seeing no personal firearms "Damm it no guns." Trigger sighed wearily anxiously hoping they could find something to defend themselves.

"So what was it like to go supersonic for the first time?" he asked having seen how Avril flew the drone.

"Well it was amazing I had never felt that kind of acceleration before and I want to experience it again!" Avril said thinking back to her first flight.

The two pilots stepping into the room which was covered in darkness but felt uneasy as they scanned the room with their torches.

Avril spotted the door with her light she went to try it but it won't open "What are the chances the door needs the power running!" she said as Trigger felt uneasy as Avril joined him at the console.

"So You're an adrenaline junkie and a flight magician. I can wait to see your magic touch on my new plane." Trigger said as Avril flashed her torch in his eyes. He moved to shield his eyes. "Well Scrap Queen you survived a nasty prang I mean I saw the charred wreckage of the drag racer I'm amazed you managed to pull off a spit arse landing."

Avril thumped his shoulder "Okay what's wrong?" he asked wondering what he'd done to earn that.

Avril rolled her eyes "Where did you learn this slang dumbass?" Avril had overheard some of the slang from the mechanics who taught her how to repair used aircraft.

"I have a dictionary of Nordennavian royal air force slang I got it for Christmas last year from Long Caster." he explained as he griped a handle "Do you feel we are not alone in here?". He pulled the lever expecting nothing to happen when the sound of the mechanism caught their attention.

Light floods the room "Took you long enough." a voice who Trigger recognised as someone he hadn't seen since the end of operation domino.

"Well I should have guessed Howard Clements so now you make yourself more of a traitor." he said as they shut off the torches but Howard easily picked up that Trigger and Avril were on a day off.

"Well Captain Hansen you got a day off with whoever?" Howards said seeing Avril scowling ferociously at him.

"First its Major Hansen now you traitor and second yeah but what are you doing here I thought this place was abandoned?" Trigger noted the electronics were working."

"So whose this and the osean navy were using this place as a submarine pen for anti shipping ops?" Howard said as Avril wanted to punch Howard for being a convicted traitor.

"I'm the chief mechanic of Trigger's squadron!" Avril responded as Howard got up from his seat.

"Why Howard Clements are you so afraid of me?" Trigger asked the disgraced brigadier general wanting to know why he was being targeted.

"Well Major I wanted you dead because now that there is no war you represent a major risk because of how much damage you can do. I have to ask if you are human like those Razgriz pilots with how skilled you are." Howard calmly said as Trigger remembered watching the in depth pieces that was done on the battles the razgriz flew in.

Avril on the other hand quietly considered a better reason why he was frightened of Trigger it was said special guys like trigger appear on the battlefield and it was clear that Howard saw something that scared him.

Avril looked at Howard flashing a smirk, she heard some stories form Elena during their time training together. She had also discussed with Elena about using her old fishbed livery at one of her air show displays but could read that Howard was about to push his luck too far.

Howard knew that the red lancer was Trigger's mom since he'd read up on her file seeing that Elena rose through the ranks during her career and was a very skilled pilot in her youth.

"Yeah the red lancer an ace pilot who savagely murdered twelve of her own countrymen and turned against her nation proves my point." Howard responded as Trigger grew angry at Howard's insinuations about his mom.

"She wouldn't have done that if your dad's tanker hadn't been shot down." Howard smugly continued as Trigger felt his anger growing.

"Howard if you know something about what happened to my father then you better tell me."

"Well Major I was the one who sent the tanker in close so jets could refuel much easier."

Howard got up knowing one thing would get an emotional reaction out of Trigger "Your Father survived the crash of his tanker apparently he wasn't in the aircraft when the recovery team go to the site." Trigger walked over and grabbed Howard ramming him against the control panel.

"You lie my dad has been dead for 25 years." he said sounding extremely angry. He overwhelmingly wanted to throw Howard Clements out the shattered window.

"Yes it was me who sent your father's tanker in close to Excalibur." Trigger filled with rage. Trigger kicked the door open hammering him against the rail.

Avril was taken aback she'd seen this side of Trigger before when he admitted he'd never gotten over his dad's death even though to him the only way would be to know that his dad was proud of him but that was impossible.

"Howard I should execute right you now for all the hell you've done to my team and I in fact I would be crippling free Erusea by depriving them of an experienced commander." Trigger's voice was laced with anger that Howard was regretting trying to get Trigger angry.

Avril placed her hand on Trigger's shoulders gently shaking her head which he read as it was not worth it.

"Howard, I am going to show mercy this time but you have one chance leave free erusea behind cause if you don't well the next time I see you. I won't be so unmerciful and that is a promise." he said as Howard hastily ran down the metal stairs. He reached the bottom and instantly jumped into the nearest boat driving off.

Trigger and Avril stepped down onto the dock seeing six china cat class ships "One still bugs me why send you all the way to zapland when you're a civilian?" Trigger upon first meeting had wondered what a civilian was doing at Zapland cause he could read from her clothes she wasn't military.

"Well apparently the reason was they required someone who could rebuild operational aircraft from the mothballed jets they had and I was the only person for the job if you saw the drag racer!"

Trigger started the engine which the pair pondered on for a sec but brushed the concern to the back of their minds as they sped out the submarine pen heading for the beach.

**Back on the beach**

After getting their tent packed up Trigger and Avril were laying on their towel enjoying some ice cream "So Avie you enjoying your ice cream?"

"Yeah I didn't know those china cat boats had a mini-fridge!" Avril licked her ice cream loving the taste of the chocolate.

"I bought your some erusean confectionery last week and I believe they arrived while we were out." Trigger sipped on his ice cold drink.

Avril had tried a macaron that Rosa made while they were at her apartment and liked the taste. "You don't need to get me a lot of gifts Trigger!" as much as she wanted Trigger to stop spoiling her she couldn't wait to get what else he had to give her. "Oh I have two more gifts coming later in the week and these two are ones you will love."

Trigger leaned back onto the towel "Avril did you think through your plan to destroy the space elevator?" Trigger looked her as she shrunk back as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Our plan was to destroy the six location marker sensors that were at the top of the windbreak if they went bad the elevator's observation system would disable the microwaves till the safety of the elevator was confirmed!" She rolled to face him confused as he knew something she didn't.

"That might have worked except the designers who built the space elevator put in backup marker sensors to take over if the primary ones go down." Trigger rolled over to look at the sky as Avril could see there was something bothering Trigger.

"Trigger something is clearly on your mind what's up?" she stared at him seeing a look of genuine concern across his face.

"You know Avril I have this nagging feeling that all our hard work will be for nothing if some dumbass has created an ai that is better than the one I destroyed at the lighthouse." he said looking at his now melted ice cream.

"You obliterated those drones, there is no way the ai programme data could have survived besides the uav are indefinitely grounded with the satellite network in ruins." she pointed out but Trigger already knew why that meant nothing.

"Until the superpowers restore the network which they need!" he retorted knowing that the satellite network needed to be restored so global navigation and communication could return along with the iff system. "Wanna get back cause its getting late?"

"May as well!" Avril got up as Trigger pulled up the towel.

They having slipped on their clothes and climbed back into the china cat boat as Trigger got them underway "So Avie did you enjoy today?"

"Of course I did." Avril leaned on the rail "That old eagle is on its way to the museum of the osean air force although Wiseman was right to call me over from Tyler island albeit only for two weeks.

"So you know the guys we lost in spare apparently they were sacrificed to help find the blind spot in the erusean air defence network!" Trigger looked back as they passed the small crater.

"How did you feel when you found out?" Avril asked him cause if she were in his place she'd be angry.

"Well I was angry cause why not send in drones its not worth losing many pilot lives." Trigger stared ahead as Avril stepped inside the cabin. her gaze noted the loitering p-1 of spectre squadron.

The boat closed in on the docks "Hopefully they won't start shooting at us." Trigger joked as he picked up the radio "Spectre 3 this is Strider 1 we have commandeered this vessel we have no hostile intention."

Trigger brought the boat into the dock and shut it down helping Avril off the boat. Trigger knew that they'll need to speak to jack about what they learned.

"So Avie by now the macarons should have arrived wanna try one?" Trigger had bought them cause he enjoyed them and knew Avril liked them too.

"Maybe tomorrow but we need to speak to Barlett come on!" Avril climbed inside the humvee with Trigger following behind.

Fort greys air base  
Fort greys island  
Usea  
18:00pm

Trigger and Avril were sitting in jack's office telling Bartlett what happened "So let me get this straight former brigadier general howard clements has joined free erusea and you discovered an osean submarine base." Jack summing up what Trigger and Avril had told them minus a few details.

"That's about it!" Avril said as she looked at Trigger who was feeling hungry after their beach day out. Jack leaned back in his chair thinking on the info that Trigger likely threatened Howard when he and the former brigadier general met up.

"So we likely have free erusea air attacks coming soon well good thing the base's early warning radar is operational since we have a bullseye on us with three strikes here but then again that is bad news for them." Jack noted that when you annoy an ace squadron it tends go badly.

Trigger and Avril got up but Jack quickly glanced at his notepad seeing the thing he couldn't tell trigger earlier.

"So why don't you get something to eat since your new uniforms won't be here till tomorrow dismissed."

****In the mess hall****

Trigger and Avril stepped into the mess hall but Count noticed that both Trigger and Avril had a tan "Well looks like you both had fun."

"You could say that but Trigger, I asked Elena if she was born in the 50s and told me she was born in 1962 two years after your father then I checked about you saying they met in the 70s well they did meet at the heirelark air academy that was a joint osea and belkan run flight school!" Avril said as Trigger took a bite of his dinner.

"I must have misremembered then." Trigger shrugged as they tucked into their dinner.

"So Alexis informed me that her best friend Alexandra is starting a family soon." Avril said as Trigger quickly looked up at her knowing instantly who she was talking about.

"You mean my aunt Alexandra hansen well I'll convey her my congrats this evening. Oh btw Avie thanks to my buying stock in salvage companies we have enough to live on when we get wedded."

The Strider pilots tucked into their dinner but Trigger having seen the three raptors parked up outside "You know after we finish up and go and see the raptors for Count, Jaeger and Huxian?" Trigger suggested, Count, Jaeger and Huxian liked that idea.

****At fort greys air base******** flightline****

They walked towards Avril's hanger seeing three grey camouflage raptors parked up. Count, Jaeger, Huxian were more excited to fly their new raptors that had replaced the strider squadron's old eagles.

Trigger could feel the excitement in the air. "Our squadron is the first to get the new upgrade package and new weapons." he pressed a button in the cockpit which opened the belly doors revealing six omni-directional multi-purpose missiles and two asraam missiles.

"The OADF high command decided to outfit our jets with the new asraam missiles to replace the ageing sidewinders although to fit the odmm they had to shorten them to fit all six and you have stealth weapon pods as well." Trigger responded as the weapons disappeared into the fuselage.

Avril peeked under the wing, Trigger climbed down form the cockpit "The amraams are being stored in case we need them for a mission but its up to your discretion for when they are required."

"So what to do now?" Count said looking at the sunset "Its probably too late to take them up now." he knew about the noise abatement that was in place during the evenings.

Avril yawned slightly and Trigger quickly scooped her off her feet. "Dumbass, put me down," Avril shouted thumping Trigger's back.

Count, Jaeger and Huxian couldn't resist laughing at the sight as Avril gave each of them death glares. "You don't need to carry me I can walk!" Avril continued shouting as the other pilots watched still laughing.

A/n

I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite the retconning of the years Trigger's parents were born

now the idea for the fictional ef-111f raven was something I had been thinking about when I was reading a wiki on the a-model ef-111 raven and it got me thinking why didn't the usaf not convert the f-111fs that were retiring into jammer planes to replace them so I figured why not have the OADF's jammer that was mentioned in operation fisherman be the ef-111f raven so they'd fill gap that frankly the irl us military needs to fill.

Now the f-44c warwolf was the result of an idea that given osea could afford to make superweapons so why not some superfighters and I also thought that Trigger given all he's done for osea deserved a fighter that would be lethal in his hands and the cfa-44 was the superfighter of choice however I moved its debut to the finale.

definition of slang featured

prang – crash landing

flight magician – flight mechanic

spit arse landing – very chancy landing

this all come from a christmas present I received over a week ago – a dictionary of raf slang


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own ace combat

November 4th 2020  
Fort greys air base  
Usea  
9:00am

Trigger's eyes slowly opened as light filled the room "Ahh the new uniform must have arrived. He climbed out of bed and stepped inside the bathroom picking up his new uniform as he did so.

10 minutes later

Trigger stepped out now changed into a dark green OADF uniform that had a gold flower on the shoulders and front with a patch on the left arm with his emblem and the phrase stick with Trigger and you'll make it.

"Avril is probably in her hangar." He opened the door only to bump into someone.

"Hey watch where you are going Dumbass!" Avril shouted picking herself up but Trigger couldn't help but notice that she was wearing a dark black top with an lrssg patch and orange trousers with light brown boots "Sorry Avril I didn't see you so shall we."

The Octogon  
Oured  
04:15am

David sat down at his desk "Hi Alex did you find something in tanker 015's transmissions?" David had asked his Ai assistant Alex to search through the transmissions of an osean tanker lost in may of 1995.

"David I may have found the closure three strikes seeks." Alex chimed as David typed up an email to Avril.

"Perfect Alex this is hopefully what Trigger needs to help him." David moved the audio file into an email addressed to Avril and sent it off.

David transferred his Ai to his phone and started shutting things down for the night. "Good night David."

"Night Alex." he turned out the lights closing the door behind him.

****In the mess hall at Fort greys****

Trigger and Avril sat down at table "Morning Strider." Count and Jaeger were already eating.

"Morning lovebirds like the new uniforms." Huxian said with a sly grin having caught them yesterday. Count looked at her confused as it felt like to him that he was missing something.

"So you and Avril are getting really close I think it won't be long before you're walking down the aisle." Jaeger noted seeing how their relationship had developed over the last year "Something to tell my son about!"

Trigger rolled his eyes at Jaeger's comment knowing his fancy way of telling stories when Jack had sat down at their table and was listening in on their conversation remembering what he needed to pass on "Trigger you and Avril will be sharing the same room since it seems you both can't keep your hands off each other so we moved Avril's things to your room." They both looked surprised that they would sharing a room so early.

"What?" Trigger quickly looked back at Jack who seemed not surprised by Trigger's reaction as he suspected three strikes had a plan for how his relationship with the Scrap Queen would go.

"We have a new pilot stationed here from Sunday, I got the news while you were out so I couldn't tell you about the changes to the room arrangements." Jack told them as Trigger stopped in his tracks.

"So your f-15 was 36 years old right?" Jaeger asked Trigger who leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah built in 84 served in the belkan and circum-pacific conflicts although the old girl really took a major beating during her final war career." Trigger having looked up his eagle's history.

"Because Dumbass, you pushed the elderly jet so hard that me and the lrssg mechanics had to rebuild it with another eagle but now it will be preserved for future pilots to see." Avril scoffed at him thinking back to how often she had to fix his plane.

"Yeah the biggest hangar queen in the air force no wonder the older f-15s are retiring and replaced by newer c and j-model eagles, silent eagles, raptors." Count joked as both Trigger and Avril scowled at him not amused.

"The eagle is known by mechanics as a hangar queen and you should know all about that Avie." Trigger joked only for Avril to lightly slap him around the head "Okay I deserved that." he rubbed the back of his head as the other three pilots chuckled at their flight lead's misfortune.

"Well Dumbass you took me on a combat sortie and I believe the first one was in a phantom to the Artigilo oil refinery." Avril couldn't resist flashing a slight smirk at him.

"Wait what you took her in trainer jet." Jaeger and Huxian were both stunned that Trigger would do something so reckless with a civilian aboard.

"Trigger I used the f-15d i was going to restore instead i used it to maintain your eagle in Spare and Huxian I'm an adrenaline junkie so I was going to take Trigger's offer any day." Avril knew that she only accepted his offer cause she loved the thrill of flying..

"I always wondered why are you an adrenaline junkie?" Trigger asked her having been wondering that ever since the missions he took her on.

"Well its mostly cause as I told you flying has been in my family for so long that is in my dna." Avril told them as Trigger had something else on his mind.

"Does anyone think the whole idea of the Spare squadron was a bad idea?" Trigger asked his wing mates which made Count who had been in Spare along with Trigger and Avril wonder what he was getting at.

"What do you mean Trigger?" he asked wondering what Trigger was getting at.

"I mean was it really a good idea to give prisoners fighter jets especially sophisticated jets like the super hornet or the flanker-d? Avril didn't you keep a list of jets that Spare squadron used so you could keep up with maintenance?" Trigger had worked with Avril in her hangar during their time at Zapland.

"I did and I think I still have it actually." She reached into her trouser pocket pulling a maintenance book out flipping back to the pages "Take a look." She handed it to Jack who read through it and went white as a sheet.

"Jesus what stupidity was going in the higher ups when they green lit this I mean the jets before the tomcat and the eagles I could understand cause they are old but fighting falcons, super hornets, flankers, fulcrum and mirage I wouldn't give those to convicts." he noted as Trigger and Avril both questioned the sense of the idea upon meeting McKinsey.

"I mean think about it we could have bombed the place and defected if we wanted to." Count pointed out thinking about the whole unit was armed with powerful aircraft "And if I remember rightly several penal units revolted, didn't Long caster have to explain to the osean forces that Trigger wasn't part of the rebellion cause of the three claw lines on his tail?"

"He did boy that was a headache." Trigger said thinking about all the problem the osean rebelling convicts had caused them over anchorhead that night.

The four pilots tucked into their breakfast unaware of what was about to happened just across the sea.

Zapland  
Usea  
10:00am

An iowa class battleship nemesis and several whidbey class landing ships steamed towards the former osean air base of zapland with four su-33 flanker-d flying above them.

The flanker-d pilot could see the island up ahead but easily identified the outline of four osean navy destroyers and a lone frigate.

The lead flanker-d gained radar lock firing its kypton anti-ship missiles at the ilolite 2 ripping through the hull as the osean destroyers turned full broadside bring their mark 42 guns to bear on the free erusean fleet.

The osean destroyers opened fire launching 127mm shells at the attacking vessels but the shots landed short of the approaching ships.

The landing ships altered their course as the Nemesis turned hard to starboard rotating its mark 7 and mark 12 naval guns towards the osean destroyers. The 16 inch guns open up lobbing shells towards the destroyers with one shell striking the o.f.s wild goose splitting it in half.

The destroyer o.f.s sandpiper 2 broke the line steaming at full speed towards the landing ship intent of firing its torpedoes but a flanker-d streaked in releasing a krypton anti-ship missile that struck the engine room leaving the sandpiper 2 dead in the water.

The other 2 destroyers continued firing their naval gun when four x-29a flew over the ship heading for the flanker-d but were shot down by a pair of flanker-d.

The tiger 2s and tigersharks jettisoned their drop tanks with the tiger 2s diving into attack the battleship who mark 12 gun turned to engage.

The tiger 2s ripple fired maverick missile knocking out of the battleships mark 7 gun and several of its mark 12 guns.

The flanker-d fired their hyper velocity alamo-c missiles which destroyed the tiger 2s and the tigersharks.

The landing ships lowered their ramps and several hover craft and amphibious assault vehicles launched and drove ashore.

The ground forces blitzed through capturing the base in 10 minutes as the damaged osean frigate ilolite 2 with the limping sandpiper 2 following close behind.

Fort greys air base  
usea  
10:30am

The erusean air force c-1 parked up with Rosa and her aunt Riana stepping down onto the airfield "So this is fort greys." Rosa looked around seeing hercules transport planes being unloaded with supplies but her gaze quickly noticed an unfamiliar jet in the hanger with Trigger and Avril walk out onto the tarmac. "Rosa so good to see you again."

"Well its nice to see you your royal highness but may I ask who is this with you?" Trigger asked the erusean princess who composed herself.

"This is my aunt and current regent queen of erusea Riana cosette d'elise." Trigger was about to curtsey but Riana raised a hand which Trigger happily shook.

"I heard the queen of erusea had died in early 2019 and your dad died during the war my condolences for your losses your highnesses." he said as they began making their way to the far hangar.

"Thank you Trigger and to answer your likely question Mom had a twin sister that if something happened to her and my father, aunt Riana would assume the throne as regent queen till I was ready to rule. My aunt Riana has spent time learning politics so my father figured that she'd be better suited at running a government since I am still too young to be queen and know nothing about politics." Rosa explained as they continued walking.

"I saw an erusean transport plane on the crest of a hill on tyler island that mostly likely yours right Cosette?" Trigger asked the eursean royal.

Avril could see Cosette was hesitant to answer "Yeah Spare squadron found her near the crash site according to what one of the spare squadron told me frankly what she'd seen in this war is something no 18 year old should have had to experience."

"Riana I hope your family can move on from the losses you suffered in this war."

"Yeah its taken its toll on all of us but hopefully after three strikes has dealt his fatal blow to free erusea then we can start to rebuild and move into an era of peace."

Riana looked at the base seeing a load of combat aircraft on the tarmac but her attention was drawn to the absence of the ils antenna from the end of runway that had a lagoon.

"They removed the antenna for safety so aircraft has a runoff area." Trigger told her as they stepped inside the hangar.

****In Avril's hangar****

The two pilots, Avril, Rosa and Riana now joined by Count, Jaeger and Huxian looked at Trigger's new jet which looked unfamiliar to them.

A delta slat equipped wing twin jet aircraft stood facing them.

Between the two marte type 17a thrust vectoring turbofan engines were a radar warning receiver while along the far left and right sides were a pair of vertical stabilizers that were shaped in an outer canard configuration.

The nose of the aircraft had an irst sensor with small canards while under the belly were a pair of air intakes shaped like the ones on the raptor, they could see that on the delta wings were four hardpoint attachment mounts.

"Woah Trigger boss you sure got an upgrade as a flight lead." Trigger just looked bemused at Count's comment about his new aircraft.

Trigger had already made his way into the cockpit but Avril stood by the ladder looking up at him.

Avril's curiosity got the better of her "How did Osea get one of these?"

Trigger now sitting in the cockpit "Well Avie during the last few years the kingdom of emmeria sold the blueprints and cfa-44 noseferatu jets form their air force to the osean federation that they had bought from estovakia who after years of research and development designed the f-44c warwolf."

"Unfortunately the navy ships took more priority over a superfighter so only one production aircraft and two test and two trainer aircraft were built although one test aircraft crashed."

Avril took over from trigger while remembering watching the f-44 crash at selatapura regional airport. While she had been studying the maintenance manuals for the jet she'd taken the time to research it online.

"And let me guess Trigger yours is the only production combat aircraft built." Count had a hunch this warwolf had to be the only one built for combat ops.

"Yep." he responded as the others looked around the jet.

Avril who had sat on the steps of ladder with Huxian staring down the exhaust "So what is different about this plane boss?" Trigger who was getting comfy in the cockpit.

"The f-44c warwolf is a cfa-44 nosferatu airframe with redesigned air intakes with a stronger airframe constructed out of high strength lightweight composite and titanium materials."

"It has combat radius of 750 miles." both the erusean royals were mentally thinking that Trigger was someone you'd want as an ally not an enemy.

Avril looked over the upper side of the wing seeing a door that looked similar to the one on the starfighter but Trigger already knew her question before she said it. "They took some cues from the starfighter's design Avril by making the radar, cannons, engines and the avionics easy to access with the tail housing an ecm pod with a radar warning receiver behind it."

"So how fast is it?" Huxian inquired getting curious herself but a little scared.

"The f-44c warwolf's top speed is mach 2.5 and supercruise at mach 1.95 and can fly up 66,000 feet. It's the most lethal 6th generation fighter ever built." Trigger thought back to the ravens they had faced.

He'd shared his fear with Elena during a recent family meet up "Although according to Schroeder the ravens we faced at the lighthouse were 7th generation aircraft." Trigger's tone had changed to one of major concern.

"So what are you saying?" Jaeger asked feeling uneasy at Trigger's words.

"I'm saying we got a glimpse at where fighter aircraft designs are possibly going and I'll tell ya folks I'm scared since those drones were relentless and ruthlessly efficient."

All the pilots, Scrap queen and the two royals felt a sense of dread that Trigger's fears were justified "Anyway anyone else got questions about the warwolf."

"So what can the avionics do?" Count couldn't resist asking but Trigger could tell Count was getting jealous.

"Its radar can see air and ground and even stealth targets up to 500 miles away, it has an early warning radar in rear where the carrier landing equipment would have been along with an ecu software that makes the plane take longer to stall and allows the pilot to pull tighter high g turns and an anti ice system." Trigger continued as Rosa looking over the design couldn't help but question its stability.

"Isn't the warwolf very unstable?" Rosa couldn't help but not to ask since she had talked to pilots when visiting air base to rally the troops.

"Yeah it is so to compensate for the unstable design with a quadruple digital fly by wire control system." Trigger poked his head up from the engine intake.

"Does that software have anything else like for combat?" Riana wondered since she knew that the o.a.d.f would be facing free erusea.

"Well it has a radar lock system for the cannons which can be fired by the trigger or the auto fire mode which can be switched on and off the red button below the gun trigger." Trigger honestly liked having an old gun trigger like the hand guns since it felt easier to use.

"What weapons does this plane have?" Cynthia asked curious as to how powerful the plane was.

Trigger quickly jumped in his cockpit selecting the admms that popped out of their weapons bay making every one jump.

"Well there are three all direction multi-purpose missile pods, two pods are housed in compartments above the air intakes and the other is housed in the between the air intakes. The asraams are housed inside the air intake."

"Where are the 30mm cannons?" Riana asked looking at the superfighter.

"The wing roots each have a gsh-6-30 rotatory cannon that shoots a total of 480 rounds" he explained but Rosa and Riana felt like the info had gone over their heads.

"And the missiles?" Rosa felt nervous at seeing this powerful jet.

She held her aunt tightly. "A pair of asraams."

"Speaking of missiles the predictive lock on software makes it easier to fire missiles in the clouds, the electro-hybrid optical sight increases the lock-on range." Trigger wondered how a jet like this could be so powerful.

"You want to know about the defensive systems!" Each pilot just nodded "The aircraft has an onboard missile jammer along with an advanced countermeasures system."

"Trigger this aircraft's capabilities are scary." Rosa feel uneasy at seeing the aircraft and how powerful it was.

"Well your highnesses I think this is one of the most powerful aircraft I'll fly and one of the most dangerous aircraft ever designed."

"The admms are only good for one shot cause it has only 12 shots but a 15 shot pod is being tested and will be sent over before the end of the year."

Trigger deep down liked the aircraft but felt like it was a good idea to have only 12 shots instead of 218.

"God help us if we were on the receiving end of these weapons so what's the cockpit like?" Rosa's feeling of unease was clear for Riana to see.

"Well Rosa that's for free erusea not our military." Riana held Rosa's hand for a brief moment as the princess thoughts brought up a fact "Remember our countries signed a non aggression pact last year."

Rosa breathed a sigh of relief while Scott looked around the cockpit.

It had a glass canopy while in front was 1 big panel that on the far right was engine instruments, the right screen was the radar and altitude an airspeed indicator, the left side was the weapons info screen and on the far left screen had the ground radar while next to the screens was the button to engage the autopilot.

In front of the panels were basic analogue instruments while on the left side were the throttle controls for the two jet engines.

In front of him was a side stick to control the aircraft's pitch, roll and bank. It also had the buttons to fire his missiles and a gun trigger to fire the two 30mm cannons.

Trigger felt very comfortable in the seat "Its an amazing cockpit."

"So when the erusean military is built back up again I expect it will be smaller than it was before right?" Trigger looked at the princess hopeful that there wouldn't be any more conflict after this year.

"Yeah Eursea is likely not to be fighting any wars I hope for a long while." Rosa spoke now calm thinking that Eursea should avoid more war after the two defeats they suffered in the last 2 decades.

Riana's eye spotted two narrow bodied delta winged drone that had the air intake mounted on the inner wing hardpoint with a v tail and on the bottom was an irst sensor, the nose housed a small pulse laser cannon while the body had two sidewinder mounted inside. "So weapon uavs?"

"Yeah the higher ups are using what 7th gen tech was salvageable from those ravens." Trigger directed Count and Huxian to give Rosa and Riana a tour of the base.

Trigger and Avril stepped outside when he spotted a pair of foxhound jet touch down with two more following shortly which parked up next to the c-1 "Oh no."

Trigger stepped back as the lead foxhound pilot climbed still wearing the pressurized suit "Can't be!"

"Well he's still not tanky even after all this time." the lead foxhound pilot who Trigger recognised immediately.

Huxian stood behind him "Trigger are these the asshole squad mates you told us about?"

"Count, Jaeger, Huxian say hello to 2nd lieutenants Aaron darius, Bret leon, Casey everett."

"You mean captain now. So what did he tell you about us?" Aaron and Casey wonder what stories their former number 4 had told them about his time in Hyperion.

"Well he told us that you guys made him do most of the air intercepts while he was flying the old foxhound and you treated him very badly."

"Well yeah cause why do you need two foxhounds to intercept a bomber when a lone foxhound can do the job."

"So I had wonder where you had gotten to after you and Lena left the squadron." the other pilots of Strider who were a few feet away.

"We bet you'd managed to get yourself killed in the over 2 years since you left the squadron. "Well I guess I owe Casey a cold one."

Avril felt herself getting angry at these pilots betting on a pilot's life "It seems despite being one half ally and enemy lady fate seems to want to keep you alive Trigger." Aaron said sneering as Avril clenched her fists.

"Last we heard of you was that botched rescue operation to rescue Harling which if I remember rightly he died on." Bret having heard about lighthouse keeper knew Trigger got court martialled "Frankly I wonder if you did kill him to avenge what he did to foil one of your countries's revenge."

"You know Trigger you were always better than us, frankly I wonder if that's all talk." Trigger could see Aaron's boasting coming through but knew just how to bring him down a peg or two.

"I could wipe the floor with you guys even in an elderly f-15 eagle which is saying something when I used it against Mihaly shilage in a erusean superfighter." Trigger felt pretty pleased with himself cause not many pilots he knew could say they've shot down a superplane and superweapon.

"Oh really but you still grieve for your father even after a quarter of a century seriously you need to grow up." Aaron was smug but Avril wanted to punch this asshole but Count stepped up to him.

"Well you bastards, I've heard enough of your shit talking about the boss he is damm better than you three assholes and I should know I flew with him for most of the goddamm war and honestly he is way of my league in combat skill but I trust Trigger with my life and know if I stick with him I'll make it." Count said sounding very angry at these three pilots.

"Yeah Trigger saved my life multiple times too I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him despite my boyfriend running off like a coward at the time, serving with him on all those combat ops I thought that he'd get me home alive so I'd follow trigger right to the end." Huxian who stood by count as Jaeger who felt sick to his stomach at these three captains.

"You three are a disgrace to that uniform Trigger is one of the bravest men I know and will have the privilege to serve under he took on an erusean ace 3 times and managed to win. He was willing to risk his life for complete strangers and gave me several stories to tell my son who I'll be able to see cause he made damm sure we survived, him being in the air brings hope that no matter how bad the situation may be we'll make it if we stick with Trigger." Jaeger moved behind Trigger as Avril slipped her head on Trigger's shoulder.

"Trigger may be a dumbass but he is my dumbass and he may push his jets too hard but when he keeps me safe and saves my life over and over again from going to wherever pilots go after they die. I love him enough that I trust him to keep me safe and I will do whatever it takes to keep him safe."

"Yeah if that means making him special parts and giving his plane special attention." Huxian couldn't resist bringing up while smiling.

"Of course but using his dead dad against him is absolutely pathetic he isn't the only one who lost a parent but he was a child for fuck sake there is no way a child wouldn't have all that pain for so long. I have every intention to help him through this so he can move on with his life cause its time he gets the closure." Avril wrapped her arms around him.

"Whatever" Aaron scoffed and turned towards the main building.

Count, Huxian, Rosa and Riana watched as the other Hyperion pilots swagger off.

"I heard you killed an ally over the mountains during the war." Huxian noted lightly elbowing Count who was still kicking himself for killing Full band.

"Sorry to disappoint you Count but you haven't taken trigger's crown you didn't kill an ally you killed a traitor." the voice told them which Trigger, Avril, Count and Huxian recognised.

"Bandog what are you…." Count was flabbergasted that their old awacs was working at their new base.

"I work here as atc controller now after the whole mess with spare 2 and 6. Trigger its a breath of fresh air having you out here." his gaze turned to Trigger and Avril.

"So Spare 15 you and the Scrap Queen are a hot topic around here." Bandog chuckled lightly.

"You knew there was something going on between those two?" Count was even more caught by surprise that even the guard dog had noticed what was going on between Trigger and Avril.

"Well she did mostly fix up his plane more of the time and not because it was an old jet, you are not bad Spare 15." Bandog turned to look at Count "Well definitely he ain't a criminal unlike you spare 2."

"Anyway I'll be getting back to the tower Spare 15 better check your plane." he said whistling as he headed back to the control tower.

****Half an hour later in the lounge****

Trigger was sitting down when Avril walked in with her laptop seeing Trigger holding a picture which she could see a man standing in front of an extender tanker aircraft. She had been looking for him for the last half hour cause she had gotten an email from David north with something Trigger needed.

"Hey Trigger you okay?" she asked as he turned his head to face her, she could see tears rolling down his face.

Trigger's response was slow as he tried to form his words "No I'm not!" she walked up to him placing her laptop on the table next to the photo.

"Wanna talk about it?" Trigger leaned back in his seat as he thought about it and quickly realised he needs to talk about this.

"Well my dad when he was training to fly tankers on the stratofreighter he had to refuel fast jets but found the stratofreighters need max power on its piston engines just to keep up with the jets." Avril had while he was talking moved in front of him but decided to stay silent.

"When my father was flying the stratotankers to Selatapura he mention that the city would make a great vacation destination and when he had leave he'd spend some time there." Avril moved to have Trigger in a hug.

"I wanted to be able to on one of the sorties to have been refuelling from his tanker. Avril's hug lasted a few minutes before Trigger leaned his head against her stomach.

"Your Dad would be proud of you Trigger especially after all you did to save us all from the robot apocalypse. She slowly rubbed his dark red hair.

Her hands slowly and steadily picked trigger's arms up letting him wrap them around her back "I was never okay with my dad dying the way he did!" she said as she noticed Laura's presence in the hallway.

"I wish Dad was alive today so I could see him flying the extender and fly the new voyager I wanted him to see me flying with him in usea and when I was acquitted of that stupid crime but now I'll never get that chance." Trigger's tears rolled down his cheek as the 25 years of pain and grief had become overwhelming.

Avril looked down at Trigger it broke her heart that he was in so much pain over a family loss which she could easily relate to as she held onto the grief over her dad's death for 9 years. "Trigger you've come so far you've ended a war and saved the world not once but twice, you saved 1 million people in your country and sent one of the most powerful nuclear submarines ever built to the bottom of the sea and prevented nuclear war but most importantly you managed to fall in love with a no nonsense tomboy mechanic who wanted to keep an eye on you from a distance to now the girl wants to spend the rest of her life with you."

Trigger felt a sense of happiness at all he's done "You know for such a quiet loner you have a very soft heart Avie!" She slowly rubbed his hair as she reached over to her laptop and continued her slow motions as she reached for the play button.

"Trigger Alex found this when she was looking through old radio transmissions I think you should hear it." she went silent as the transmission began.

"Elena my soaring falcon, this may be the last time we see other but i want to say that i love you so very much and I'm sorry that i won't be around to help raise our children, tell the kids that i will be very proud of them whatever they do when they grow up!" Trigger sat quietly as tears rolled down his cheek "and that i love them so very much. Goodbye my sweet falcon. I will miss all of you so very much."

Avril looked up at Laura who had cried a little herself at hearing her father's words "Thank you this will give him the closure he seeks." she quietly said then left as Avril looked back at Trigger.

He looked up at her as tears stopped he smiled now knowing that his father was proud of him.

He felt the pain he'd been carrying starting to leave but he knew it would take time to fully move on but now he could. He got up pulling Avril into a tight hug but then unexpectedly kissed her which she didn't mind.

"So wanna go for a walk?" Avril smiled thinking that was a good call.

As the pair left the room he could see Laura was watching from the end happy that her brother finally beginning to heal from his grief.

****The crew room******  
**15:30pm

Trigger and the rest of his squadron were happily chatting with Rosa and Riana when Alison who flew as Hyperion 4 entered "Where's Lena last I heard she's flying out of here with golem squadron?"

"She was shot down and killed over chopinburg by Mihaly shilage who I personally shot down."

"I'm sorry for your loss Trigger!" Alison sighed she'd been childhood friends with Lena before they had parted ways.

"Didn't know you did ballet your highness!" Avril noted as Rosa looked at Riana who leaned back in her chair.

"Yeah my niece in her youth was a school champion in the local ballerina competition." Riana told the group as Avril let out a quiet yawn.

"So Trigger I'm gonna take a lie down wanna join me?" Avril asked Trigger who happily accepted.

****In Trigger and Avril's room****

Avril stepped inside her and Trigger's room seeing double bed but her gaze was attracted to a book. Trigger walked in seeing Avril flipping through the book seeing Trigger who looked 5 years younger with an air superiority grey foxhound behind him with a blonde woman standing next to him. She turned the page to see a two tone green and grey camouflaged fulcrum with a two tone blue sea eagle.

She turned to the back seeing a two tone grey camouflaged fighting falcon with Trigger standing near the tail. She moved her gaze to see Trigger sitting in the cockpit of an air superiority grey eagle with its distinctive three claw lines. "Trigger who's the woman in the picture of the foxhound?" she pointed to the blonde but Trigger just laid back on his bed.

"That was my former weapon system officer Lena Benson or Brownie as I knew her." he said as she lay next to him still holding the book.

"What was she like?" Avril wondered what Brownie was like when Trigger knew her.

"She a very nice person, I had a crush on her at one point but she didn't have an interest in me." Trigger said to Avril as he remembered the day they met up again.

_January 5th 2019_  
_Fort greys air base_  
_Usea_

_Trigger and Clown stepped into the room when Brownie spotted him "Scott!" he stopped as his gaze turned to her._

_"Lena!" He waited as she got up from her seat rushing over to him pulling him into a tight hug "Lena so good to see you again I heard you're flying super hornets now nice work."_

_"Lena you already know the mage 2?" Boggard asked her who with Trigger sat at the table._

_"I was his weapon system officer when we flew the mig-31 in Hyperion squadron till we left so what did you do since we left that squadron?" Brownie thought back to their time flying the foxhound._

_Trigger quickly got up and got himself a tea but Brownie wasn't surprised by this at all. She knew Scott well enough that tea was something he'd have._

_"Well after I transferred I was offered a 9 month officer exchange flying sea eagles then I flew regular fulcrums till I was reassigned here by Clown." Trigger sipped his tea knowing it had cooled down slightly._

_"Did you go anywhere in your time in the navy?" Knocker wondered if Trigger had gone anywhere with a carrier strike group._

_"Yeah I went to Emmeria for 6 months." he remembered all the sights he'd seen when the carrier had been stationed in Emmeria._

_"So Lena tomorrow you'll be helping Trigger get familiar with the base before he starts flight training on Monday." Clown wanted Trigger to be familiar with Fort greys so he knew how to get around._

_"Now Lena, Trigger want to share stories about your previous squadron?" the rest of golem squadron looked eager to hear what stories Brownie had._

_"Of course!" Lena and Trigger were eager to share what they had done with the pilots._

****Back in the present****

"So Dumbass, I think you need the nap not me but if you proposed to me I'd say yes immediately." Avril looked at Trigger who quietly drifted off to sleep as Avril carefully got out of bed "Sleep well trigger." she quietly closed the door and made her way to the hangar.

****Avril's hanger******  
**17:25pm

Trigger had changed into his flight suit when he saw Avril typing something on her laptop. He stood there as Avril was finishing attaching the weapon uavs and pulse laser cannons for some reason she thought he'd need them. She walked over to her bench typing up something on her laptop. Avril continued typing as the sound of a propliner on take take-off could be heard.

Trigger slowly approached her while she continued what she was doing. He stood behind her pulling her into a hug "Dumbass get off." she tried to wriggle her way out of his grip but quickly realised that it was futile.

"What do you want Trigger?" she wanted to continue designing liveries for when she flew at air shows.

"Avril you just spend probably a good hour or two installing those weapon uavs so how about you try and relax for the afternoon." Trigger knew that the weapon uavs would have taken a bit of time to install on the jet.

He leaned against her shoulder "I got to see some proposed aircraft like an ultra high altitude interceptor version of the sr-71 blackbird but one of the air force brass shot down the proposed aircraft saying it was an aircraft that wasn't needed given all the sophisticated sam and fighter planes in service."

Avril wondered to herself if the pure interceptors were on the way out "You know I think its fair to say that the days of the foxhound are coming to an end."

"That it is and as someone who flew those interceptors yeah they really aren't suited to anything other than a pure bomber intercept."

"Come on Avie you've been working for most of the day so why don't relax in the lounge so you'll have quiet to work on your designs. So Rosa and Riana will be staying till Friday cause I want them here to see you go back into the sky." Avril moved to save her document with the designs she was working on.

The sound of air raid alarms filled the air as Trigger raced over to his warwolf "Avril underground tunnel now."

Trigger lowered the canopy and started up his engines as Avril hastily made her way into the tunnels with her laptop.

****Outside****

"Get the foxhounds airborne now." The atc controller called as Trigger's warwolf rolled onto the taxiway while on the other side were the three raptors of his squadron just starting up their engines.

He looked up to see an aircraft he's never seen before but what caught his eye was the railgun which fired at the radar tower "Tower what do you need form Strider squadron?"

"Trigger get the warwolf and help Hyperion the rest of strider will be a minute or two late."

The four foxhounds roared down the runway with Trigger lining up as the airborne fortress flew over the docks. "Trigger cleared for take-off, take down whatever that thing is." Trigger's hand firewalled the throttle.

The warwolf roared down the runway getting airborne shortly after. Trigger raised his gear as he climbed to catch up to the foxhounds.

Trigger and the four foxhounds caught up to the unknown aircraft seeing a large v shaped lower hull that had a large rectangle shaped midsection that had a door for a hanger. Above the midsection was a large curved swept wing that housed two sets of six marte type 30 turbofan engines while the bottom of the fuselage had a row of aa guns and launchers for uavs while above were eight air to air missile launchers.

The belly of loki opened up as a large electromagnetic railgun lowered into position aiming at the docks. The railgun fired destroying a dock building then positioned to aim at a hatakaze class destroyer.

The railgun fires again splitting the destroyer in half then the cannon retracts back inside "Long Caster we need sar now."

Four kc-10 extender approached form the west and positioned themselves in front of Loki unfortunately Trigger had spotted them before them were in visual range "Best stop the tanker." he thought to himself pulling the warwolf into a vertical climb then rolled into a dive firing short bursts of pulse laser fire into the tanker with the fourth one exploding into a fireball.

"Well Trigger feel bad taking out the tanker?" Aaron sneered hoping to get a reaction out of Trigger "I'm certain the commander of the tanker felt the same way as your dead dad. I mean what you just did with your pulse lasers is exactly what Excalibur did with its laser."

"Shut up shut up." Trigger's hand reached for the control to tune the radio to a different frequency when Bandog spoke up having heard every thing.

"Trigger stay focused you're cleared to engage, Bring down Loki you're are our best hope of stopping it three strikes good luck." Bandog knew that Trigger was their best hope of survival but he had some choice words for Hyperion.

"Hyperion 1,2 and 3 you cowards aren't suitable to be targets so shut your mouths." Bandog said to them not happy at their treatment of Trigger since Bandog after hearing about all Trigger had achieved had come to respect him as a person who given all the crap he dealt with during the recent war didn't deserve this verbal abuse.

The foxhounds rippled fired their aa-9 amos missiles but the roof of loki opened up revealing an aps unit.

"Shit Hyperion squadron cease fire and break off, it has an active protection system!" Trigger watched as a blue electrical sphere formed around Loki and the amos missiles collided with it but did nothing as the warhead detonated on impact with the shield.

The rear panel opened up revealing the rail gun "Hyperion 4 break." Hyperion 4 nosed down barely avoiding the shell.

Trigger's warwolf formed up with the four foxhounds with the rest of strider behind them ″So that thing has an aps system like that dammed Arsenal bird.″

The rest of Strider couldn't understand how Free erusea had gotten ahold of this technology when both aps units as far as they knew had been destroyed with the arsenal birds.

″Hyperion squadron stick with us.″ Jeager said over the frequency as Trigger knew they had a greater chance of getting out of this alive if they stuck with three strikes.

″Why stick with you?″ Aaron couldn't understand why Jaeger was telling him to stick with Trigger.

″We have a saying at the lrssg, stick with Trigger and you'll make it.″ Count chimed in knowing Trigger was their best chance of getting out of this alive.

″Why?″ Alison inquired sounding very confused as to why they should stick with Trigger.

″Cause you have a greater chance of survival if Trigger is involved.″ Huxian said over the frequency as Loki filled their gun sights.

Trigger's radar locked onto all the aams and half of the aa guns "Fox five." the admms launched from the warwolf igniting and streaking towards their targets destroying the sams and half the aa guns instantly when two mq-99 launched from Loki followed by a pair of mq-101 rolled out of Loki "Loki has launched uavs."

"All aircraft engage at will uavs won't hesitate to kill!" Long Caster announced as the Strider squadron knew the mq-99 and 101s needed to be destroyed quickly.

Huxian and Jaeger broke formation to pursue the 1st mq-99 with Count firing one of his odmm which tore apart the 1st mq-101 "Got one of the bastard." the 2nd mq-101 climbed away.

The foxhounds broke into two flights to pursue the mq-101 and remaining mq-99.

Before Trigger could engage the drones a missile warning shrieked in headset.

Trigger looked over his shoulder seeing a light grey with white camouflage f-15s/mtd that had four sparrow on the belly with two sidewinder missiles on the wing gloves.

"Missile in the air Strider 1 evade!" Huxian called looking back to see the sidewinders heading for trigger who deployed flares.

He quickly turned around heading for the f-15s/mtd "Unknown aircraft cease your attack on our unit or we'll be forced to shoot you down." Long Caster called to the unknown aircraft which Trigger recognised as a rarely seen jet.

"He's flying an f-15s/mtd." Trigger knew his wingmen needed his help.

"Three strikes you are a threat that must be purged from the world." the voice Trigger did not recognise but as the 2 planes merged Trigger easily noticed the general resources logo on the tail.

"I don't have time for this dision vacuum cleaner I have to clean out that super weapon." Trigger selected his weapon uavs "Weapon uavs launched."

The weapon uavs closed on dision's jet firing short bursts of pulse lasers followed by sidewinder.

Dision deployed his flares but the drones sprayed his jet with laser fire until the 2nd uav collided with the tail taking a piece of its wing then came around firing another burst of laser fire into dision's jet which exploded in mid-air.

The two uavs returned to trigger's jet "Splash one f-15s/mtd."

He was about go to help his team when a pair of marine blue with green and grey camouflage f-4z phantom 2 that had a coffin screen of a canopy with four sparrows on the belly and on the wing glove inner pylons were two asraams.

Trigger released his uavs which easily destroyed the 1st phantom 2 but as it came around to return to the warwolf the damaged 2nd uav crashed into the tail section of the phantom sending it into a nose dive which crashed into the shallow lake.

The uav crashed into the beach breaking up on impact.

Hyperion 1 and 2 locked onto the mq-101 with their aa-6 acrid but the moment they fired the uav pitched up breaking the lock and the aa-6 streaked into the distance.

"Damm." Aaron groaned to himself as the mq-99 rolled over but he already spotted its silhouette and pulled up firing his 23mm cannon which tore the mq-99 apart.

"Take this you drone." Huxian fired an odmm which easily destroyed the mq-101.

Loki continued heading south approaching the 2nd newman crater as two mq-90 quox and mq-90l quox bis launched from the back. "Four more uavs launched type is identified as mq-90s quox.

All the pilots couldn't believe that they were mq-90s since only the kingdom of nordennavic had those "Well better shoot them down."

Trigger locked onto the first quox bis and shot off an asraam which seconds later destroyed the quox bis as the 2nd one fired off a laser beam.

The beam sliced through hyperion 4s wing "Hyperion 4 rtb Hyperion 3 escort Alison to safety."

Hyperion 3 formed up with Hyperion 4 turning around as Jaeger fired an odmm which followed the quox bis and obliterated it. "So time to dispatch the other two." Jeager looked around for the two mq-90s.

The mq-90 came around as Loki pitched up then rolled over and reversed its course heading for Fort greys. "Strider squadron drop them into the Atlantic."

Count rippled fired odmm which destroyed the remaining aa guns "Well there go the aa guns."

Hyperion 1 managed to get behind the 1st mq-90 and fired his 2nd aa-6 acrid.

The acrid missile flew straight into the mq-90's rear and tore it apart.

The last mq-90 fired its aam-4s which smashed into Hyperion 1's number 2 engine.

"Aaron can you eject?" Trigger called which caught Aaron off guard that Trigger was more focused on him.

The foxhound began dropping as Aaron pulled back trying to level the interceptor but the plane was unresponsive.

"Aaron eject the plane is not worth your life." Trigger shouted trying to get Aaron to eject.

Aaron slammed his ejector punching out of the plane followed by his wso as the burning foxhound was ripped apart by an eml round. Trigger turned around and deployed his weapon uav while firing pulse laser rounds into the connection point. The railgun mount exploded the railgun separated form loki.

"Confirming explosion the railgun has been destroyed by Strider 1." Huxian called as the railgun fell from loki towards the water as the roof mechanism began to activate.

Trigger locked onto the right engine pulling into the vertical and rolled over then opened fire with his lasers and cannons destroying the right wing engine box. He pulled a half loop and roll diving on the left wing box and fired again which destroyed engine no.6 and the shrapnel destroyed the other two.

Loki's roof opened up but Trigger launched his uav against the remaining mq-90 easily dispatching it then selected the aps and sent the uav in but as the uav closed in the aps activated and damaged the uav's systems.

The drone crashed into the aps unit igniting on impact sending an explosion through loki "Okay Trigger that's enough get out of there now." Bandog called from the tower as explosions tore through Loki.

Loki rolled hard to the left while diving towards the water.

Loki hit the water sinking very quickly then an underwater explosion ripped through the surface as a small column of water rose a hundred feet before falling back down.

Count, Jaeger, Huxian, Hyperion 2 and Hyperion 3 formed up with Trigger who saw the burning remains of hyperion 4 "They bailed out before the plane went down."

The Warwolf touched down on the tarmac and Trigger taxied the jet to Avril's hangar as the other Strider squadron landed.

****In Avril's hang********a********r****

Avril stood in front of the warwolf wearing her ear defenders easily noting the lost uavs which Trigger used in combat luckily they had replacements on order. "So Trigger the Warwolf is lethal." she attached the stairs while Trigger disconnected his oxygen mask while raising the canopy.

"That super weapon wasn't like the arsenal bird but I think the wreckage should be salvaged so the oia weapons analysts can find out more about it." he climbed down then pulled her to a tight hug.

"Where did free erusea get something like this?" she couldn't help but ask him although knowing that he couldn't answer her.

"Good question." a voice Avril hadn't heard in so long. Alexis and a woman who looked five years younger with braces on both legs walked into the hangar as the smell of jet exhaust drifted in from the warwolf's engines.

"Angela I thought you were dead." Avril broke out of Trigger's hug and ran over to her cousin hugging her "We have some catching up to do."

"Good thing there is a restaurant off base so Avril you go and enjoy yourself and catch up with your cousin."

"Oh you're coming too after you get debriefed and shower!" Angela noted as Count was waiting for Trigger.

"Shall we?" he offered Avril a hand which she happily took.

Fort greys briefing room no.1  
18:00pm

Jaeger, Huxian were seat along with Jack as Count, Trigger and Avril who took their seats as Long caster stood near a podium with a mic "Loki has been destroyed, well done Strider squadron the docks have taken heavy damage but the worst outcome was avoided and that's what counts."

The four pilots had many questions but Avril was already thinking "Will the loss of this weapon hurt free erusea?"

"Hopefully this will damage Free Erusea's capability but we're at a loss as to what they want, their motives still aren't clear. They targeted Fort greys and North point with sophisticated weaponry, they operate on too big a size to be terrorists it's obvious they have financial backing."

"Wait they attacked North point with this weapon too." The pilots of Strider were caught by surprise that free erusea attacked North point and they weren't aware of it.

Jack quickly figured Strider needed a rest after an emergency sortie. "Oh uh this is not something we should discuss right after you guys just finished a mission. Thank you for protecting fort greys you deserve a good rest Strider squadron."

"Trigger that f-15s/mtd you destroyed looks to have been from the same outfit as those two mimic pilots but the O.a.d.f are chasing up General resources for answers." Jack knew when mercenaries were involved things got ugly fast.

"Well with Dision dead and Mimic mia hopefully Grgm won't try again so I'll get cleaned up." Trigger whistled to himself as he left the debriefing room.

**Fort greys restaurant  
**19:00pm

Avril, Angela, Trigger and Alexis were seated at a table "So ladies what do you want?" he eyed a tagliatelle polto while Avril, Angela and Alexis had their eye on a tagliatelle marinara.

After telling the waiter what they wanted "So Avril tell Angie about your boyfriend Trigger." Alexis said with a snicker and sly grin on her face.

"So Avie who is this gentleman?" she was very curious to know who had stolen her cousin's heart.

"Well his name is Scott hansen but we call him Trigger, he's the flight lead the famous strider squadron of the osean long range strategic strike group but to his enemies he's the famous three strikes." Angela put her drink down as her next question came to mind."

"So Avie where is the famous three strikes from?" Angela looked at Trigger trying to guess where he was from.

"He's from Solis ortus in ustio although his parents are from Osea and Belka." Avril's words surprised Angela but something told her that Trigger was not like other belkans.

"Do you like him?" she asked her which annoyed Avril a little since she loved Trigger a lot.

"Of course I like him he may be a dumbass who pushes his plane too much sometimes but I trust him to get me home alive." Avril said confidently as Angela's gaze turned to Trigger who felt like he was staring down the jaw of a monster.

"Does he like you?" she asked him as he composed himself remembering that he'd destroyed two 7th generation jets.

"Of course I like her she may be a bit a tomboy at times but is the person I trust to service my planes it was her skill as a mechanic that kept my ageing f-15 from falling to pieces even when it was being pushed hard. She is a beautiful lady who had the guts to call me out on it and ground my plane."

"What are your plans for the future?" she wondered what her cousin was planning to do with her life."

"Well after Three strikes has destroyed free erusea he and I are planning to get married and settle down in Solis ortus and I plan to fly my new plane at air shows all over the world."

"How are you going to afford to do that?" Alexis had worked at air shows in the pre-lighthouse war and had conversations with air show pilots who told her just how costly being an air show pilot was.

"Apparently thanks to all the stock in salvage companies he bought has made him quite enough to retire very comfortably spend the rest of my life with him."

Angela and Alexis looked at each other as they took in that Avril had planned to settle down so soon "How did you meet?"

"Well we met in prison after Avril got sent to the zapland for breaking aviation law with that starfighter flight while I was sent there on a false conviction charge." Trigger was not looking forward to tell his future kids that story.

"So cousin it took you going to jail to get a boyfriend." Angela snickered as Avril rolled her eyes not amused.

"Well Trigger you better be treating my cousin right or you'll find out why I was feared by the isaf forces." Angela had heard of three strikes and that he had more kills than her and likely would wipe the floor with her.

Alexis whispered in Angela's ear then looked back at Three strikes and the Scrap Queen "Have you done it yet?"

"Angie shut up." Avril exclaimed feeling embarrassed that her cousin was asking about her sex life much to Alexis's amusement.

The waiter came back with their food "Bon appetite." the four tucked into their meals.

****Later that night****

Trigger stepped into the hangar looking over the restored f-104g starfighter "Soon you will be my queen's hands." he looked at the name on the side.

He walked around the nose he placed the cover over the pitot tube but the wing and air intake covers had already been put on.

He ducked under the wing seeing the two high powered sidewinder external fuel tanks attached with a catamaran rail housing two more sidewinders.

Trigger knew that the report into the downing of Avril's first drag racer had come out and it was recommended that all OADF be given air interception procedure training starting with Strider tomorrow.

"So this is my cousin's new plane is it?" Angela and Alexis walked into the hangar as the starfighter stood in interceptor configuration.

"So this is how the drag racer looked before it retired 30 years ago?" Angela has seen pictures of Ustio's starfighters.

"Yeah this is how she was used in her final years of military service." Trigger put covers over the missile seeker heads.

They stared at the warbird as Alexis walked along the side seeing Avril's name on the airplane and smiled at seeing her daughter's name below the canopy.

Angela let out a yawn "How about you and Alexis retire for tonight I'll lock up. Trigger pulled the keys out of his pocket.

"Well goodnight Dumbass." Alexis said to him as She and Angela walked towards the hangar side door.

"Night Alexis, Angela." he started walking towards the door as they slipped out the hangar.

He reached the side door his hand on the switch with one last glimpse at the restored vintage high performance aircraft he hit the lights.

A/n

well I hope you enjoyed my first ace combat fanfic It took a long time from being a one shot all the way back in january of last year to this 7 chapter fic and now I hope you'll stick around for the sequel free erusea strikes back which I hope to start soon unless work gets in the way as I have to find employment which will eat into my writing time but I hope to try and reduce the disruption to a minimum

now I'd like to thank K-nack-7, Vegeltren, Montymarten for all the help they gave throughout the course of this story and I recommend you read their fics they are very good

now I just thought I'd show the specs of Trigger's new plane and the character bios of some of the characters introduced in this finale

f-44c warwolf specs

maximum speed: Mach 2.45  
supercruise speed Mach 1.95  
2x Marte type 17a turbofans producing 37,000ibf of thrust

Performance  
Combat radius: 750 miles  
Ferry range: 2050 miles with 2 external fuel tanks  
Rate of climb: 50,000 feet per minute  
Ceiling height: 66,000 feet

Regent queen of Erusea  
Name: Riana Cosette D'Elise  
Age: 55  
Sex: Female  
Height: 175cm  
Weight: 50kg  
Hair: blond  
Eyes: blue

Name: Angela mead  
tac name: Yellow 4  
Age: 40  
Sex: Female  
Nationality: Erusean  
Height: 170cm  
Weight: 60kg  
Hair: dark brown  
Eyes: brown

so I'll see you aces in the sky and remember nuggets stick with Trigger and you'll make it.


End file.
